OBSERVATIONS ON TERMITES IN JAMAICA 209 



the trail were moved bodily to one side by a stick, leaving a 

 bare space of fresh sand from B to A. The termites coming to 

 the point of forking, B, continued along the other fork as if 

 the fork, B-A, had never existed, but the termites coming back 

 toward the nest when they got to A, accumulated there in the 

 lack of any familiar trail over the two inches of sand to B. 

 From A many returned on their footsteps an inch to a side 

 path and slowly got off one side, 3 inches along this old side 

 branch. Finally some termites partly rolling down the slope 

 from A toward B and partly exploring in that general direc- 

 tion did arrive at the old fork beyond B. Here some ran toward 

 the nest and some away from it along with the termites already 

 passing. But almost at once after these had crossed the new 

 sand there was a rapid rush of termites from A to B and soon 

 some went from B to A, and the removed trail was reestablished 

 in the same general line. 



The effect of obstacles across the path w^as also tried by put- 

 ting strips of manila paper and blades of grass across. A strip 

 an inch wide and 11 long across a trail dow^n a cocoanut 

 tree caused all the termites to stop and recoil as if shocked; 

 all above, that is toward nest, then ran back and left the trail 

 entirely deserted. Those below^ were mostly soldiers and they 

 accumulated in a cluster of 12 or so at the edge of the paper. 

 Some wandered 3 or 4 inches right and left by the edge of 

 the paper and some few got onto the paper and proceeded 

 diagonally nearly across but when near enough to reach bark 

 on the opposite side with antennae stopped as if shocked by 

 change from paper to bark and returned. After 20 minutes 

 none had gotten across. When paper was then removed the 

 termites still stopped at line where paper had been till finally 

 one soldier crossed and went slowly up tree along trail where 

 no termites had been for 20 minutes. 



A like strip but 5 mm. wide laid in the interval between gangs 

 of termites running down the same tree the next day, 2 or 3 

 abreast, produced the same check in the procession both above 

 and below. But here those coming up rebounded from the 

 slightly raised edge of the paper and turned back till the track 

 wa;s deserted while those above collected to the number of 2 

 or 3 dozen. After 3 minutes i soldier crossed almost to the 

 other edge; then a worker came up from below and crossed, 



