THE HABITS OF CALIFORNIA TF.RM1TES. 



61 



very little difficulty. After watching many colonies for more 

 than a year I have yet to see a soldier subsisting on any other 

 kind of food. On one occasion I saw a soldier of Calotermes try- 

 ing industriously to gnaw off part of the abdomen of a disabled 

 nymph and at another time watched one biting a splinter of wood, 

 but these efforts were of short duration and without success. 



FIG. ;. 



FIG. 3. Termite soldiers. ./, r,rmopsis angusticollis, X 5 '> ^> Calotermes cas- 

 ts, X9> (-', Termes lucifugus, ) 12. 



On several occasions, while transferring colonies from their 

 nests into jars, I have seen the soldiers of all three species rush 

 frantically about and impale one of their fellows on their man- 

 dibles, but after quiet had been restored such acts were never re- 

 peated and it is safe to conclude that they form no part of the 

 normal life of a colony. 



In the presence of sufficient moisture the discarded rejecta- 

 menta are often used in the construction of barricades or for fill- 

 ing old beetle burrows ; otherwise they are cast outside the nest. 



