202 E. A. ANDREWS 



In only one case was a fresh, white and not very hard nodule 

 found and this was in a nest with several similar nodules 30 to 

 50 mm. thick but hard. The soft, white nodule looked much 

 like some puff ball fungus when cut open and was 25 mm. thick. 

 Sections of this show it to be a real fungus. It is possible that 

 at times, as in the rainy season of spring, fungus may grow 

 upon the above food nodules in amount sufficient to make them 

 like real fungus gardens, but so far as seen this summer, they 

 are primarily food stores and may be taken as representing 

 the primitive basis of fungus gardens more highly developed in 

 other climates. 



That these masses of food store have nutritive value over and 

 above the cellulose they contain is shown by nitrogen determin- 

 ations kindly made for me in the Chemical Laboratory here. 

 Various pieces of the food nodules yielded from two to three- 

 tenths per cent of nitrogen, which would correspond to more 

 than one per cent of proteid matter. 



In connection with this occurrence of immense food surplus 

 it might be mentioned that different communities present all 

 stages of success and there are poorly kept and abandoned 

 nests as well as some which are exceedingly well taken care of. 



Frequently a large, yellow-red ant, probably Camponotus 

 hannani Forel, takes possession of part of the nest even before 

 the termites have abandoned it and introduces the added un- 

 pleasantness in study of the termites described by Hubbard. 



Turning now to the inhabitants of the nest, we found many 

 thousands of winged termites in some nests but most nests had 

 none at all. These generally crawled rapidly into the dark and 

 but few would fly; a few flew to the lamp at night, but these 

 probably came from disturbed and transported nests. Hubbard 

 records some Jamaica termites ready to swarm in February. 

 The winged forms occupied some one portion of the nest, often 

 toward the surface, and were densely crowded. 



In the queen chamber of most nests one large deaelated female, 

 or queen, could be found, though easily lost. In two cases four 

 queens were found in one nest, apparently all in the same queen 

 chamber. The queens in different nests varied much in amount 

 of distention, the largest being 27 mm. long and 7 mm. thick. 

 The abdomen showed slow but powerful vermicular waves of 

 contraction and was so heavy as to be but slow^ly dragged by 



