OF CERTAIN TERMITE NESTS. 189 



substances, and is covered with a fine fungus mycelium which 

 bears innumerable minute white spheres. This is the termite 

 " comb," which serves the insects as a fungus garden, a 

 nursery, and a living room. 



The size of the comb varies with that of the cavity : some 

 are only about 5 cms. in diameter ; others may be 20 cms. long, 

 15 cms. broad, and 10 cms. high. They he quite free in the 

 chamber, with a clear space 2-3 cms. broad between them 

 and the roof and sides. The smaller ones have a flat base, are 

 more or less hemispherical, and are equally perforated on the 

 sides and top : the larger (? older) are irregularly oval in plan 

 and concave below. The under portions of these larger 

 combs are soft, and can easily be removed with a brush : the 

 upper part is firmer and somewhat brittle. There may be 

 more than one comb in a chamber : if so, they are piled up on 

 one another like inverted basins. 



The larger combs of Termes redemanni, Wasm. (Plate VII.) 

 show in the upper part a series of gradually diminishing 

 plates with few perforations. In their earlier stages they 

 contain eggs, larvae, workers, and soldiers : the eggs are always 

 in the lowest passages, while the living insects swarm through- 

 out the comb. Many combs, especially those which are 

 producing agarics, contain workers and soldiers only. It is 

 not however probable that any chambers are specially re- 

 served as nurseries : each in its turn contains eggs and 

 larvae. 



In nests of Termes obscuriceps, Wasm. (Plate VIII.), the 

 larger combs show on the top a complex series of roofless 

 galleries which give them a resemblance to pieces of "' brain 

 coral." The combs of this species contain larvae even when 

 they are producing agarics. In these respects only do they 

 differ from the combs of Termes redemanni. 



Somewhere in the centre of the nest and invariably (?) 

 below ground level is a single thick- walled earthen cell just 

 large enough to contain the enormously distended queen and 



