OBSERVATIONS ON TERMITES IN JAMAICA 223 



times be accompanied by acts like those in arcade building, 

 namely, ejection of material from the mouth, reversal of the 

 ends of the body and ejection of anal material upon the wounded 

 comrade. On the other hand such a washed termite placed 

 amidst aliens is not attacked as an unwashed one is but is but 

 mildly attacked. In general the well washed individual is 

 injured both at home and abroad. 



A rather typical experiment was as follows. Six or 7 termites 

 in a fold of bolting cloth were washed 4 minutes under a I inch 

 tap of rapidly running water, 30 pounds pressure, and then 

 drained off 4 minutes on filter paper. One worker put then 

 amidst its fellows was mildly attacked, had a leg cut off, was 

 bitten and had light-colored mouth material put upon its head. 

 It did not defend itself and appeared as if sleepy. Transferred 

 to an alien colony it was again attacked and had red-brown 

 excreta put upon its head and throat by an alien worker which 

 turned again to put more upon its abdomen but deposited a 

 droplet on the filter paper. Returned, neai" dead, to its fellows, 

 it was again mildly nibbled. More energetic attacks followed 

 if the alien was amidst many washed termites. Thus a fellow 

 worker placed amidst 18 workers and 2 soldiers washed as above, 

 ran rapidly about and attacked the first washed one it touched, 

 but gradually ceased to attack and tried to escape. And when 

 an alien worker was placed in the same group it cut oft' the 2 

 antennae of one washed worker and cut the abdomen of another. 

 Restored to its own community it acted nervously but was 

 not noticed. 



This effect of washing to make a termite somewhat offensive 

 to both friends and foes was found to last in termites dried 

 80 minutes, but there are no experiments to show how soon it 

 might have worn oft". 



Failures to get the above results from washing were observed 

 when termites were washed 3 times as above and again when 

 20 and 200 were washed at once, and when a few were left two 

 hours in a tumbler of water. 



On the other hand, when the termites were soaked 15 minutes, 

 ^ hour, or i hour, in freshly gathered rain water the result was 

 difterent in degree. In many of these soaked termites a neutral 

 state seemed attained. These termites were carefully examined 

 by fellows and by aliens but in some cases not attacked, so 



