Definition of "termes"

These turret nests, built by two different species of Termites.

1781, Henry Smeathman, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, LXXI, page 160

The termes, or what is called the white ant, infests this island.

1800, The Asiatic Annual Register, page 5/2

The termes of South Africa is not the destructive species.

1834, Thomas Pringle, chapter VIII, in African Sketches, page 287