OBSERVATIONS ON TERMITES IN JAMAICA 197 



soon die if deprived of moisture, so that the presence of water 

 is a necessary condition in their Hfe and probably one reason 

 why the direct sunshine would not be favorable. The source of 

 water supply was not found out in the case of some communi- 

 ties found living on mangroves far out in the salt water with 

 but small areas of tree branches to depend on. 



The food eaten is dead wood of many kinds of trees, including 

 cocoloba, mango and mangrove, cocoanut, calabash, and espe- 

 cially logwood. The wood is not attacked at the nest where 

 the bark of the tree is intact but at seme considerable distance, 

 where there is entrance into the interior from some accidental 

 injury. The termites were not seen to enter through the bark, 

 whose hard or varnished surface seems to repell their mandibles, 

 but wherever there had been a broken branch or limb or a dead 

 spot there the arcades might terminate in holes eaten into the 

 wood. In captivity the above woods were eaten into mere 

 shells about the tunnels and the same was true for imported pine 

 wood and for sugar cane and the interior of bamboos, while 

 but little attention was paid to bread or boiled egg, or dead 

 fish or clams. 



In eating the food only the workers were seen to be active 

 and these remained a long time slowly chewing off a mouthful. 

 In one case a marked worker (painted) remained in the wood 

 twenty-one minutes before starting to the nest. 



Having thus slowly obtained food and water the workers 

 run through the long arcades to the third field of their activities, 

 the nest or termitarium to which all the arcades lead and which 

 is the home or breeding place and region of greatest protection 

 and complete darkness. 



The method of building the nest was not observed, but the 

 outer surface of it is covered over with an unbroken layer iden- 

 tical with the arcade walls and the interior can easily be under- 

 stood if imagined made up of many arcades built over one another 

 in all directions with intercommunications and with thickened 

 walls. 



In the repair of nests as in arcade building nearby material 

 is used. Thus when pine blocks, soaked in methylene blue, were 

 thrust into the nest, the broken walls were mended about the 

 block with use of some of the blue wood bitten off and carried 

 a few inches. 



