224 The Philippine Journal of Science i»is 



and fruit. Tanner 4 reports that the ants work these fragments 

 with their mouth parts and then place them in position. 



The termite combs, from Manila and Los Banos, (Plate III, 

 fig. 2, and Plate IV, fig. 1) lie loosely on the floor of the larger 

 cavities or chambers of the nest. They are brown, either flat 

 or convexo-concave, about 2 centimeters thick and from a few 

 to many centimeters in diameter. The passages in the combs 

 are either rounded or elongated and run from the top to the 

 bottom of the comb. They are frequently simple or a few may 

 be connected together. 



In the following discussion, the different fungi found on the 

 termite combs in the vicinity of Manila and Los Bahos, will be 

 treated separately. 



THE "CONIDIAL" SPHERE (AEGERITA DUTHEI BERK.) 



The termite combs in the vicinity of Manila and Los Banos 

 are impregnated with fungus hyphae and their surfaces are 

 thickly dotted with rounded fungoid bodies on short stalks 

 (Plate IV, fig. 1). These appear to be entirely similar to those 

 described from Ceylon by Petch and are^probably eaten by the 

 termites, as what seem to be spores from these can be found 

 inside the young termites. 



Holtermann, 5 who studied the termites of India and Malaya, 

 described these white, stalked, spherical bodies which occurred on 

 the mycelium of the termite combs. Holtermann and Dofiein • 

 both found that these were eaten by the termites. Doflein 

 suggests that these bodies form the food of all the larvae and 

 the sexual individuals, while at a certain stage the soldiers and 

 workers adopt another kind of food. The geographic distribu- 

 tion of these spheres is summarized by Petch 7 as follows : 



Holtermann regarded these spheres as identical in all the nests he 

 examined, whether in Ceylon, Java, Singapore, or Borneo. It is, I think, 

 clear from the description and figures of the Madagascar species that the 

 latter is identical with that found in Ceylon; and from Berkeley's figures 

 the Ceylon species is certainly the same as that found in India. Fur- 

 thermore, Tragardh's description and figures of the fungus on the combs 

 of T. vulgaris in the Sudan agree well with the Ceylon species. I have 

 not been able to find any reference, in the literature at my disposal, to 



4 Tanner, J. E., Oecodema cephalotes, the parasol or leaf-cutting ant, 

 Trinidad Field Nat. Club 1 (1892) 68-69. 



6 Holtermann, C, Botanische Untersuchungen (1899) 411-420. 



•Doflein, F., Die Pilzkulturen der Termiten, Verhandl. Deutsch Zool 

 Gesellschaft (1905) 140-149. 



'Petch, T., Termite fungi: A resume, Ann. Bot. Gard. Peradeniya 5 

 (1913) 303-341. 9 



