BLACK TERMITE OF CEYLON. 399 



but the plates which form the comb, where any arrangement 

 can be detected, are more or less parallel to the walls of the 

 cavity in which the comb is built. This is evident from 

 PI. VIII. 



As is usual with termites, the larvaj are white. The immature 

 winged insects are black and Avhite. The flight of the latter 

 from the nest has not been observed ; they were found in a nest 

 which was opened on January 24, 1910. 



The External Struct ctre. 



The black external mass is adherent to the surface of the 

 branch or stem round the opening of the cavity which contains 

 the comb. When pendent from a small base it is usually about 

 a foot m length (PI. VI. a), but where it adheres to a tree trunk 

 it may be prolonged to a length of three or four feet (PI. VII.). 

 As a rule, the insects make use of a natural orifice in the stem, 

 but one case has been observed in which they might possibly 

 have made openings for themselves. This was a nest m a 

 hollow stem of Cassia muliijuga, wl|ich furnished the piece of 

 comb figured on PI. VIII. The stem was upright, and hollow 

 from the broken top for a length of about thirty feet, the comb 

 occupying the uppermost twenty feet of the cavity. In 

 addition to an external black mass hanging from the opening 

 at the broken end of the stem, numerous other smaller masses 

 adhered to the stem at various distances from the top, and it 

 was found that these v/ere built round short horizontal tunnels 

 which penetrated through the sound wood into the cavity. 

 However, it is possible that these holes may have been bored 

 by other insects, and subsequently made use of by the termites. 



The external mass is more or less similar to the comb in 

 general structure, though its galleries are smaller and its walls 

 proportionately thicker. It usually terminates below in 

 several projections, at the end of each of which is an opening 

 which provides access to the interior. But though it also is 

 built of excrement, the material is in quite a different form from 

 that used in the construction of the internal comb. It takes 

 the form of small cylindrical pellets about 1 mm. long and • 5 

 mm. diameter when fresh, Avhich contract to 0-75 X 0*4 mm. 

 when dry. The termite emerges from the nest, takes up a 



