181)2.] 215 



with nulunentary wings, eularged backwards into the abdomen; legs short ; 

 abdomen oblong, smooth, segments nine, largely furrowed or wrinkled; pos- 

 teriorly rounded and obtuse. 



These females (?) were quite numerous (one-eighth to one-tenth of the 

 whole community) in a large nest on the top of a hill in the northern part 

 of San Saba County, late in the autumn of 1860. Again the following 

 spring, I found them with the wings little if any enlarged ; they crept ra- 

 ther slowly, endeavouring to escape into the inner recesses of the den. In 

 these nests I also found forms evidently in a growing state, head rudimen- 

 tary or none, legs none, anterior portion small and rather pointed ; abdo- 

 minal or posterior part large and obtuse. 



Lampasas, San Saba and the adjoining counties, Texas. 



This species often has clay tubes four to six inches high above the sur- 

 face of the ground, interlacing and crossing each other at various angles, 

 and generally attached to grass or bushes ; these tubes are very thin and 

 from one-third to one-half an inch in diameter ; beneath these cylinders 

 they also have cells in the ground. At other times where the ground is 

 very dry, hard and unsuited to form tubes, they construct an irregular clay 

 mass three to four inches high, which is filled with winding passages. 

 Again I have found them beneath rocks on hill tops, in cells from which 

 there were holes leading to other cells below. In overturning rocks to 

 find ants, it sometimes happened that both ants and termites would have 

 their nests under the same rock ; then the ants on discovering the termites 

 would invariably seize them and drag or endeavor to drag them away, nor 

 would the termites make any resistance. At first I thought it strange 

 that the ants — which are very numerous in that section — did not extermi- 

 nate the termites which are also very common. I have often caught ants 

 and placed them at the entrance of a termites' den, especially these tube- 

 makers, but the ants on seeing the termes on gaurd, would always run 

 away, and in one instance when I thrust an ant within the door, the ter- 

 mes seized it and dragged it hack within. 



Tebmes flavipes Kollar^ is the most abundant species of the genus 

 in Texas. Specimens from that locality are similar to those obtained in 

 the vicinity of Philadelphia. 



