White ants may have reached the top of
a tree, and yet they were underground not long ago. They took up
soil with them, building it into tunnel-huts as they moved
upward; and in these huts they lived securely, feasting on the
wood of the tree, around which they had built solid walls of
earth.
Millions of trees, in some districts, are plastered over with mud
tubes, galleries, and chambers. It is not unusual to find a tree
having thousands of pounds of earth packed around it. The earth
is conveyed by the insects up a central pipe, with which all the
various galleries communicate, and which, at the downward end,
connects with passages running deep into the ground.
The white ant's method of working is as follows: At the foot of a
tree the tiniest hole cautiously opens in the soil close to the
bark. A small head appears with a tiny grain of earth clasped in
its jaws. Against the tree trunk this grain is deposited and
the head is withdrawn. Again the little creature returns with
another grain, which is laid beside the first, tight against it,
and the builder once more disappears underground in search of
more of these unquarried building stones.
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