40 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



reliance can be placed in any of his statements, and it is more 

 than probable that he confounded several species. It is certainly 

 very strange that at no occasion winged specimens have been 

 found which could be referred to this interesting and economic 

 ally important species. 



4. Eutermes nigriceps Haldeman. I do not hesitate in iden 

 tifying Haldeman's Termes nigriceps (Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phila. 

 1853, p. 365), described from western Mexico, with a species 

 of Eutermes tolerably abundant throughout southwestern Texas. 

 Buckley's description of Eutermes cinereus (Proc. Ent. Soc. I, 

 1862, p. 212, 213) agrees with my specimens, but his account of 

 the mode of occurrence and habits greatly differs from my obser 

 vations. Both Haldeman and Buckley describe only the work 

 ers and nasuti. Haldeman was informed by his correspondent 

 that ''this small species constructs nests, apparently of cow's 

 dung, which are attached to the trunks of trees." Buckley ob 

 served his species in San Saba and adjoining counties of Texas. 

 He says : 



"It was about sunset on the 22d of October, 1860, when I first saw this 

 species in a field where both worker and nasuti were carrying home seeds 

 of grasses and weeds. They marched in dense columns along pathways 

 leading to a hole near the base of a stump, into which they entered. . . . 

 They dwell in the ground, where they have rooms, seldom more than one 

 to two inches long, connected by tunnels. . . . After rains which are of 

 rare occurrence in that climate they make semi-cylindrical tubes, which 

 lie on the surface of the ground to the length of from three to six inches. 

 These arched ways sometimes intersect each other, being connected with 

 chambers below; they rarely work by day above the surface, and never in 

 the bright sunshine. In June, 1861, in Llano County, I saw them carry 

 ing home dry segments of post oak leaves of the preceding year's growth." 



I found this species throughout spring and fall in smaller or 

 larger colonies, usually within tolerably dry cow's dung, in which 

 it constructs long and winding galleries. Other colonies were 

 seen under fence boards lying on the ground, and one under a 

 large Polyporus lying on the ground. The species is much 

 more active than any other termite known to me, and closely re 

 sembles in its movements one of the wingless Psocids. The 

 colonies are composed of workers and nasuti, the former being 

 much more numerous than the latter. In no instance has a 

 single larva or sexed individual ever been seen in such situations. 

 It must be inferred, therefore, that the true nest is deep in the 

 ground. 



On May 31 a flight of termites took place on the public square 

 of the town of San Diego during a rain storm. I failed to find the 

 exact spot from which the swarms issued, but the specimens proved 



