380 CLAUDE FULLER. 



direct or indirect route into one of the extensions of the 

 fungus-garden. As some of these shafts widen out consider- 

 ably as they descend, it is extremely probable that they have 

 much to do with the aerating of the nest, and are not solely 

 roadways to the dump-heaps. 



The nest proper takes the form of a very large globular 

 cavity with supplementary fungus-gardens which imitate 

 those of Termes latericius, except that they are in wide 

 communication with the centi'al nest, or it has many large 

 irregular extensions around its periphery. 



The dome of the great cavity is within 8 to 10 in. below 

 the sui-face of the soil, and as its vertical diameter may be 

 as much as 2 ft. and the horizontal diameter 3 ft., and as it 

 contains no strong clay-snpports, it is readily understood 

 why the species displays such a marked predilection to 

 establish itself at the base of a tree. Up to the present no 

 nest has been examined in which at least one lai'ge root did 

 not pass through the great cavity or sufficiently near to help 

 in strengthening it. The interior walls of the cavity are 

 always plastered about an inch thick with clay-cement, and 

 a consistent feature is the strong cemented clay cupola 

 roofing it. This is so strong that it can be completely 

 exposed by removing the surface soil, and then, if cut around, 

 it can be lifted oif in a solid piece like the lid of a caldron. 

 It is not necessarily perforated, but, in the case of the nest 

 somewhat diagrammatically illustrated (PI. XXX, fig. 1), 

 one circular hole, three-quarters of an inch in diameter, gave 

 access to a vertical shaft above it. The cavity is quite filled 

 by a fungus-garden; this is like a giant sponge and obviously 

 built in level layers, although its full arrangement is occluded 

 by the reticulum of a clay frame irregularly disposed within 

 it ; a frame Avhich is never attached to the cupola and which 

 is not firmly joined to the walls. If the nest displays lateral 

 extensions, as shown in text-fig 11, a and b, the fungus- 

 garden branches, octopus-like, along the length of these. 

 When supplementary cavities are present, they have broadly 

 oval, flattened floors and are widely vaulted. The fungus- 



