OF CERTAIN TEKMITE NESTS. 257 



On the other hand, the material of the termite comb con- 

 sists entirely of balls of finely divided wood and other vege- 

 table substances which have passed through the alimentary 

 canal of the insects, and these balls are cemented together 

 by the secretion of the termites. The fungus is not abundant 

 in the interior of the comb material and does not serve to bi nd 

 the individual balls together. There seems to be more my- 

 celium, both internal and external, in the garden of the leaf- 

 cutting ants than in the termite comb. A difference in 

 colour between the old and new material is also to be seen in 

 termite combs. Apparently there is no difference in the 

 distribution of the " Kohlrabihaufchen " in the garden, except 

 that, as in the termite comb, these are less abundant in the 

 more recently built part. 



There is however a wide difference between the " Kohlrabi- 

 haufchen" and the termite "spheres." The former are 

 merely tufts of hyphae, each hypha terminating in a single 

 spherical swelling, which is not cut off from ths hypha by 

 a cross wall. There is no regular arrangement of the indi\ i- 

 dual hyphse, and normal hypha? occur intermingled with them. 

 The termite sphere differs in having the primary hypha- 

 united into a distinct stalk, at the apex of which regularly 

 arranged branches are produced. The formation of two 

 kinds of cells in regular series has no parallel in the " Kohl- 

 rabihaufchen." 



Moller succeeded in growing from the ' Kohlrabikopfe 

 of Atta discigera a mycelium on which the " Kohlrabihaufchen 

 were reproduced. Only in rare cases did the spherical heads 

 give rise to a hypha : instead, the new growth generally arose 

 from the original hypha at some distance below the swelling. 

 In the termite sphere the spherical conidia do not germinate, 

 while the oval conidia produce abundant mycelium, but in 

 no case has it been possible to reproduce the sphere. The 

 growth of a hypha immediately beneath the swollen 

 " Kohlrabikopf " resembles that in the spherical cells of the 

 sphere of Entoloma microcarpum. The oval cells of the termite 



