338 CLAUDE FULLER. 



which survived for a time buried its mate. On the four- 

 teenth day one of the second pair died, and its mate was 

 watched whilst it carefully encoffined the corpse in earthern 

 paste. The third pair remained alive, displaying little if any 

 anxiety Avhen exposed to the light. On the sixteenth day 

 (November 13th) a small bunch of yellowish eggs was 

 noticed adhering to the glass side of the cell. On December 

 29th the first egg hatched, but whether one of those first laid 

 (these appeared to become somewhat desiccated) could not 

 be determined. Two days later fourteen young termites 

 were counted, and many eggs Avere still unhatched. Before 

 they hatched, the eggs were the object of frequent attention 

 by both parents, and they often inspected them, feeling them 

 over with their palpi. The young insects received constant 

 attention from their parents, and apart from being fed by 

 them they seemed to be constantly groomed. On the ninety- 

 eighth day (February 2nd, 1914) some of the workers 

 appeared to be adult, the heads showing yellow chitin. By 

 this time the cell was a crowded mass of life and some eggs 

 were also seen ; at the same time no enlargement of the cell 

 had been made and no galleries driven from it. Naturally, 

 neither male nor female had taken any kind of nourishment, 

 but they did not appear any the worse for their long fast nor 

 emaciated by the feeding and raising of their young. This 

 unfortunately is the last note made upon the colony. The 

 writer left headquarters the next day, and during his absence 

 the soil was kept too moist, and the whole colony succumbed 

 and rotted before his return. 



The burrowing of the pairs of this species resembles that 

 of the smaller kinds ; but, in common with other larger sorts, 

 it is capable of greater exertions, and in beginning the 

 operations the insects can be seen scratching the loose 

 particles with their feet and throwing them behind them, as 

 do most burrowing animals. When a pebble is met with, it 

 is not avoided but picked up in the jaws and carried out 

 and deposited where it cannot roll back into the excava- 

 tion. 



