OBSERVATIONS ON TERMITES IN JAMAICA 221 



walking but little was not attacked. When, however, a winged 

 form happened to come against a worker and then bit the worker 

 it was seized by several workers though it had attacked and was 

 attacked without its antennae. 



When the palps were cut off, the winged form was attacked. 

 When the legs were cut off the winged form was attacked only 

 when it wriggled but not when still. When the abdomen and 

 metathorax of the winged form was cut oft' it was examined 

 but not bitten till moved with the forceps. When the abdomen 

 of a soldier was cut off it stood up and was attacked while also 

 squirting clear liquid at the alien workers. When the head and 

 wings were cut off it evoked snapping responses and excitement 

 but no real attack; and when the head was cut oft" from the 

 soldier it stood up but did not move and was not attacked 

 though causing excitement. 



The several organs were not attacked unless made to move 

 by the forceps; this applies to the wings, antennae, legs, head 

 and abdomen of winged forms and of soldiers. 



It would thus appear that in the ordinary response to active 

 aliens the two elements of movement and of alien character 

 may be more or less combined and also that in case of severe 

 injury to an alien either something inhibits the response to the 

 alien character or else this character is itself affected along 

 with the bodily injury. When the termites are incited to attack 

 a moving torso or other fragment they soon desist and act 

 more to it as to a moving brush or forceps than to a moving 

 alien. A soldier that seemed as if asleep when put amidst aliens 

 was attacked but soon left alone when inert, was again attacked 

 when shoved against a worker but again soon left alone; here 

 again the action of the alien seems a potent factor in the result. 



That some chemical substances bring out responses in ter- 

 mites seems to follow^ from the effects of treating termites with 

 ether: they readily fall into a trance and when recovered are 

 received, both workers and soldiers, by members of their com- 

 munity as if not treated, but if they are returned to the com- 

 munity while under the ether they form the center of a group 

 of termites that examine them with the antennae or even lick 

 them a little. Likewise some juice of the stem of a mango on 

 a worker caused its fellow workers to draw back and then stand 

 pointing their antennae at it. 



