352 CLAUDE FULLER. 



majority of them fall away on one side of the gallery to a 

 lower level (PL XXVI, figs. 2 and 2a). 



It was noticed in all the inhabited and uninhabited hives 

 that no passage-way entered the dome of the hive, and where 

 a tunnel was found about a foot below ground running over 

 the site of one nest it showed no indication of approaching 

 the cavity but kept straight and horizontal along all the 

 distance (10 ft.) it was exposed. 



Harvesting is conducted in the bright sunshine, and Mr. F. 

 Thomson, of the Division of Entomology, informs me that on 

 several occasions when bivouacking on the veld he has 

 observed Ho do term es s2J. working at night, but only when 

 the moon was bright and full. He also states that they quite 

 commonly enter stables and feed on the hay litter therein at 

 night. 



Ordinarily, however, they work during the daylight, closing 

 the entrances to the bui-rows at night-fall with short stoppers 

 of clay. Harvesting is conducted all the year round with, 

 as far as observations go, a break when Avinter merges into 

 spring. From complaints reaching the writer Hodotermes 

 spp. seem to be most active, or are noticed to be most 

 active, during the autumn and early winter months. In 

 Pretoria, however, the activities of transvaalensis Avere 

 noted all through the summer and until the end of June. 

 Some time subsequently these ceased and remained in 

 abeyance from August to the middle of October. Their 

 activity in the latter part of the season may be put 

 down to the then more favourable condition of the grass for 

 storage, and the cessation later on to the fact that their 

 granaries are full, rather than to the succulence of the young 

 grass. There are several fictions regarding the activities of 

 these termites. One is that they are more abundant during 

 periods of drought, the other that they are most active just 

 before a thunderstorm. Speaking on personal observation 

 alone, they have never been seen more busy than on one 

 winter's morning between 8 and 9 a.m. when frost lay thick 

 near-by under the shade of a Cupressus hedge. They 



