OF CERTAIN TERMITE NESTS. 269 



when the winged termites had departed. Another smaller 

 flight from the same nest was observed three weeks later. 



This flight usually occurs at night, and generally after or 

 during rain. On one occasion when a day and night of tropical 

 showers had succeeded several weeks of dry weather, I 

 travelled at dawn the next day through miles of winged 

 termites. 



Another flight of T. redemanni was watched under more 

 favourable conditions. The nest was under the floor of a 

 verandah, and the termites emerged through about a dozen 

 widely separated openings between the bricks which formed 

 the sloping face of the gutter. It was raining heavily the 

 whole time. The exodus began at 5.45 p.m. was at its height 

 at 6, and was completed at 6.15. By 6.30 all the openings 

 but one had been closed, but the closure was not complete ; 

 in each case a row of small openings was left, large enough to 

 admit workers or soldiers, but too small for the winged insects. 

 The remaining hole was closed at 7.10 p.m. This was the one 

 which was being particularly watched, and it is very probable 

 that the constant illumination altered the normal course of 

 events to some extent, as the winged insects would be thereby 

 induced to remain longer in the neighbourhood of the nest than 

 they would under ordinary conditions. As in other cases, the 

 workers and the soldiers were congregated outside the nest. 

 Most of the sexed insects dropped their wings soon after 

 emergence, but one which was imprisoned in a glass tube 

 retained them until it died thirty-six hours later. They began 

 to pair at once, some before they had shed their wings, 

 following one another about in strings, but I did not see any 

 actual pairing. When the exit of winged insects had ceased, 

 some of them re-entered the nest. This occurred at every 

 opening, but at the one especially observed more than thirty 

 entered. Most of these had shed their wings, but many still- 

 winged insects went in, and of these only two came out again . 

 One was prevented from entering by a soldier, and flew away 

 with the soldier attached to its head, but this was the only 



