SOCIAL LIFE 



259 



treatment wdth the digestive juices, is used by many termites 

 for the construction of their nests, which, in such case, 

 assume a carton-like consistency. These are often found 

 suspended from the branches of trees, they are particularly 

 characteristic of the tropical American forests, " and vary 

 from the size of a football to that of a barrel." The nests 

 of termites in their multifarious modifications have been 

 lately described in detail in the treatise of E. Hegh (1922). 



Fig. 65. — Rove-beetle {Termitoptocinus australiensis). a, dorsal, and 

 6, lateral views, X 10; c, larva, dorsal view, X 12. "Guests" of 

 Eutermes fumipennis, N. Australia. After F. Silvestri {Boll. Lab. Portici, 

 XV, 1021). 



Like the societies of true ants, the termite communities 

 are remarkably interesting on account of the number and 

 variety of alien insects which they harbour as " guests." 

 Our knowledge of these is largely due to the researches of 

 E. Wasmann (19 10-12). Many of them are rove-beetles 

 (Staphylinidae), which, like the fertile termites, have assumed 

 the *' physogastric " condition, the abdomen being greatly 

 swollen and covered for the most part with soft flexible 



