388 CLAUDE FULLKR. 



filled with a complex array of clay-girders, brackets, shelves 

 and stairways in and amongst which the fungus-beds lie, they 

 baffle concrete description. Flung out all around the main 

 hive a foot to six feet away are many supplementary fungus- 

 gardens in which young are also raised ; a state of affairs 

 almost suggesting differential feeding. These gardens are 

 placed in typical high domed cavities (usually 6 in. in 

 diameter and 4 to 5 high) with flattish and circular floors. 

 The fungus-beds in these annexures are regularly built 

 and always present an agreeable symmetry (PI. XXX, fig. 11). 

 Their general appearance may be likened to large rosettes,, 

 and they are noticeably built up tier upon tier ; each tier, 

 decreasing in diameter from the base upwards, is circular and 

 emargined with triangular, slightly deflected, rigid flaps. The 

 fungus-beds are quite distinct from the spongiform loaf made 

 by T. vulgaris and do not at all resemble those of the other 

 species here described. 



Communication between the cavities containing the small 

 supplementary fungus-gardens and the main hive is estab- 

 lished by a single and simple, cylindrical tunnel, sufficiently 

 large for a couple of insects to pass one another. There are 

 no large main pathways leading out from the smaller cavities 

 or even from the hive-cavity, and it is only with difficulty 

 that the small tubes are displayed. These leave the hive at 

 or near its base and, running almost horizontally throughout 

 the greater part of their length, rise by short steps in the 

 same manner as do the foraging galleries of Hodotermes 

 transvaalensis. 



Whilst there are no conspicuous galleries radiating directly 

 out from the hive, somewhere near the periphery subterranean 

 runways are to be found. These seem to be a distinct 

 feature and to be for the purpose of giving the insects ready 

 and rapid access to the neighbourhood of the nest on the one 

 hand, and the surface soil on the other, as well as to connect 

 up with the system of peculiar outlying granaries which this 

 species builds. As far as could be ascertained, communica- 

 tion with the hive-cavity from a main runway is onl}^ through 



