190 PETCH : THE FUNGI 



her smaller consort. Its walls are perforated everywhere 

 bv minute holes through which the workers remove the eggs 

 and bring food to the royal pair. 



Holtermann (7) refers to the single combs as the " nests" : 

 it seems preferable to retain the latter term for the whole 

 collection of chambers and combs which are dependent on 

 (usually) one queen : this is sometimes called a Termitarium. 

 The queens found by Holtermann in the combs would be 

 supplementary or reserve queens : these are not always 

 present. 



In obtaining material for the present paper the nests 

 investigated were usually in the earlier stage, when all the 

 comb chambers are below ground. Their presence is then 

 indicated as a rule by three or four small chimneys, 10-20 

 cms. high, surrounded by the scattered earth which has been 

 brought up in excavating the chambers. It has not been 

 determined at what age or under what conditions the mound 

 nest is constructed, or why the termites in many cases appear 

 to be content with a subterranean nest only. It seems pro- 

 bable that the termite hill was originally only a convenient 

 method of disposing of the earth excavated in making sub- 

 terranean chambers. Even at the present day the hill is 

 always built as a solid structure and the chambers are 

 excavated in it as required. True ants bring up earth 

 in the same way, but they do not cement it together, and 

 it is consequently washed or blown away : an extension 

 of the nest above ground does not therefore occur in their 

 case. 



The chimney shafts of a subterranean nest run down to a 

 depth of 50 cms. in an average nest and below the level of the 

 chambers arranged round them. These nests are not as 

 compacl ;is the mound nests : a large one in a bank occupied 

 a space 1<> metres Long, 4 5 metres wide, and over 1 metre 

 deep: in tin- centre <>f this area the chambers were close 

 together, but sections nearer the outer limits exposed chambers 



