The Black Termite of Ceylon, 



{Eutermes monoceros^ Koen.). 



BY 



T. FETCH, B.A., B.Sc. 



A N account of the fungi which grow in the nests of Termes 

 -^^ redemanni and T. obscuriceps, in Ceylon, was published 

 in the Annals of Peradeniya, Vol. III., 1906, pp. 185-270. 



These termites inhabit subterranean nests, which are ulti- 

 mately extended above ground into more or less conical 

 mounds. The examination of these nests showed, what had 

 been previously recorded for other species, that the combs 

 produce a conidial fungus, j^cjerita Duthiei, which presumably 

 serves as food for the insects ; and in addition it was found 

 that two other fungi grow from these combs when they are 

 old, viz., an agaric, Collyhia albuminosa (Berk.), and a xylaria, 

 Xylaria nigripes Klotzsch (= X. Gardneri Berk.). The 

 former is produced while the nests are still inhabited, but the 

 latter only grows after they have been deserted. Since then 

 it has been proved that Sclerotium stipitatum Berk. & Curr., 

 which occurs only in termite nests, is the sclerotium of Xylaria 

 nigripes (Ann. Myc, V., 1907, pp. 401-403), and that deserted 

 nests usually produce in addition a yellow Peziza, P. epispartia 

 B. & Br. (Ann. Perad., IV., p. 12). According to von Hohnel 

 (Fragmente zur Mykologie, V., p. 12) the xylaria must be 

 regarded as two species, one with perithecia wholly embedded 

 in a uniformly cylindrical clava, usually simple {X. nigripes), 

 and the other with projecting perithecia, or with almost 

 distinct perithecia seated upon a filiform clava, the clava in 

 either case being usually dichotomously forked {X. furcata) ; 

 but there appears to be some probability of proving that these 

 are really identical. All the fungi mentioned above are 

 confined to termite nests, or rather they have not been found 

 in any other situation up to the present. 

 Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Vol., V., Part VI., November. 1013. 



6(8)13 (''51) 



