OF CERTAIN TERMITE NESTS. 191 



sometimes thirty-six centimetres apart. In many cases 

 there is no chimney : an area 12 metres long and 6 metres 

 wide in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, which has 

 provided a number of specimens of the agaric shows no 

 external sign of a termite nest except a small hole at one 

 corner. The chambers in this area appear to be arranged in 

 a single layer, and are only indicated by the agaric which 

 grows from them. When the chambers, as in this case, are 

 hollowed out in fairly loose earth, the walls are of a clay-like 

 consistency, and often break away in sections like pieces of 

 newly moulded pottery. 



Both combs and cavities vary in size and shape in different 

 nests, but the variation is not greater than that in a single 

 nest. Combs near the periphery of large mound nests may 

 be only one-twentieth the size of those in the interior. The 

 three combs figured (PI. VII.) were taken from the same 

 nest of Termes redemanni : that on the right is exceptional 

 in having an oblong ground plan and almost perpendicular 

 sides. 



Holtermann (7) evidently investigated the underground 

 nests, since he states that he was guided to them by the agaric. 

 He names the termites Termes fatalis, Konig, and Termes 

 taphrobanes, Walker, and says that he found the same species 

 in Borneo and Java. Doflein (13), who appears to have 

 studied chiefly the mound nests, assigns the occupants of the 

 latter to Termes obscuriceps, Wasm. It was at first thought 

 that the difference in the kind of nest, i.e., entirely subterra- 

 nean or mound forming, was due to difference in the species 

 of termite, but this view has proved incorrect. The same 

 species forms both kinds of nests, the first being merely a 

 preliminary stage of the second. The species which occur 

 more commonly and have been the subject of investigation 

 at Peradeniya are Termes redemanni, Wasm., and Termes 

 obscuriceps, Wasm. The fungi accompanying these two 

 species are identical. 



9(8)06 (13) 



