INSECT LIFE IN INDIA AND HOW TO STUDY IT. 381 



Sugar-cane also at times suffers severely from T. toprobanes which 

 burrows into and destroys the sets soon after planting, and eats through 

 the junction between the young plant and the plant set, so that the 

 young plant dies off. Castor cake whilst being a manure, is said to 

 serve as a prevention against these attacks. 



In Gujerat the pest is said to attack most crops after they are cut and 

 stored, and hay, corn stacks, &c, must be carefully watched. Corn is 

 always threshed soon after it is cut for fear of this pest. 



lermes fatal is Konig is a termite said by Nietnor to occasionally 

 attack ooffee bushes in Ceylon but to do little damage to thorn. The 



writer discovered 

 another species of 

 white ant borinjr 

 into fresh sandal- 



a - &« wood in the Coim- 



Fio. 26 — Sandalwood white ant. Ti rmes sp. CCoimbatore, ■, 



Madras Presidency) a, worker ; &, soldier, batore tOWWS m 

 greatly enlarged. Madras. This 



Termes does not make earthen galleries, but lives and bores in the solid 

 wood. tig. 26a shows a worker and b, a soldier of this species. 



Prevention. — In countries where termites are common, wooden beams 

 and supports of houses should be constantly and carefully inspected and 

 tested to see that they are not being hollowed out or undermined by the 

 pest. Wooden posts used as supports to bungalows should be thickly 

 tarred on the ends placed in the ground, and once a year these ends 

 should bo exposed by removing the soil and fresh tar laid on, a small 

 pool of tar being formed round the end in contact with the soil. The 

 wooden parts above soil should be constantly inspected, and all mud 

 galleries running up them be brushed off, as the termites will give up 

 the attack once they are exposed to light. 



Remedies. — When the ' white ants' are troublesome in bungalows or 

 nurseries, careful search should be made for their nests, the earthen gal- 

 leries, under which the insects are doing the damage, being traced back 

 to the point they emanate from. The nest having been found, all save 

 one or two large openings should be closed and some pieces of carbon 

 bisulphide be pushed into the unclosed openings, which should then be 

 sealed up. The fumes will sink down through the nost and entirely 

 exterminate the colony. Care must be taken to (1) close all the openings 

 and (2) not to breathe the vapours given off by the carbon bisulphide. 



