224 E. A. ANDREWS 



that the water seemed to have made the termites somewhat 

 different to their fellows but not obnoxious, while it made them 

 acceptable to aliens. Here again there was the interesting grada- 

 tion that the workers were more completely neutral while the 

 soldiers called out more attack response and were more roughly 

 treated by aliens and also by fellows, being jostled or pushed 

 or snapped at but not bitten. 



Assuming a nest aura we may suppose the water removes 

 some substances and thereby so modifies this aura that the 

 termite lacks the material to excite the aliens and also lacks 

 the material to make it unnoticed by its fellows. It may thus 

 attain to a state of near non-existence amidst aliens and of 

 more or less unrecognized novelty amidst its fellows, according 

 to the completeness of the loss. Mere wetness may, however, 

 act to suppress, or to keep in, the aura. It is also to be borne 

 in mind that the changed activity of the washed termite will 

 cause it to bring forth less response than the more active normal 

 one, while in as far as it is abnormal in any way it may evoke 

 responses associated with shutting out the external, as in arcade 

 building. The washing may also have caused physiological 

 changes with new secretions, masking the normal ones or calling 

 out new responses. Changed vibrations might also enter into 

 the problem as well as the mere loss or change of some chemical 

 substance, or nest aura. 



The addition of a little ether, gasoline, or scented soap made 

 no observed constant difference, but the termite thus washed 

 was either only observed or else mildly attacked by its fellows 

 and sometimes accepted by aliens with mere examination. 



Assuming the reactions to other termites to be due to sub- 

 stances that come oft" in the water it might be possible to restore 

 these substances or to apply them to termites so as to alter 

 their normal aura and change the responses. 



Many attempts to deceive the termites in this way were made, 

 but with unsatisfactory results. When the juices from crushed 

 termites were applied to an alien washed in water the responses 

 to it by its fellows and by aliens were apparently the same as 

 if it had only been washed in water, but there may have been 

 undetected differences since the responses to dead or wounded 

 and to w^ashed termites seem to be much alike, so that the effect 

 of the alien juices would be overlooked. 



