410 CLAUDE FULLER. 



The reason for this extraordinary manifestation, limited as 

 it is to some nests only in a series, is very elusive. It can 

 scarcely be due to the queen going astray in the galleries or 

 to her gaining access to another nest, although it is possible 

 for her to do this. If it is due to her death, one would 

 expect that the inhabitants of the one mound would simply 

 augment the colonies of those with which it is in such intiu;ijite 

 communication and not commit suicide. The circumstance 

 caniiot be credited to drought or cold, for many neai'-by 

 colonies no better circumstanced continue to thrive ; nor is it 

 from shortage of food, as Dr. Warren found ample provender 

 in the deserted nests, whilst a similar state of affairs obtained 

 at Plati-and and Crocodile River. 



The speedy death of the insects on outpouring from the 

 nest is equally remarkable ; not alone because those captured 

 and placed in a test-tube lived for so long, but also because, 

 if a nest be bi'oken and the insects exposed to the glaring 

 sunlight, they do not die. The workers simply seek shelter 

 under the broken fragments strewn around or in the recesses 

 of the nest, whilst the soldiers expose themselves for hours 

 unmindful of danger from foe and uninjured by the sun- 

 shine. 



On the face of it, this extraordinary action and voluntary 

 death seems to be the reflex of some unknown stimulus ; and 

 perhaps Ave may assume that the few insects set aside lived 

 because their capture and removal to a fresh environment 

 broke the influence of the stimulus. 



The two agarics (Podaxon pistillaris and P. carsino- 

 malis) which grow out of the mounds of trinervius have 

 nothing to do apparently with the economy of the termites 

 (PI. XXXII, fig. 2). The mycelia from which these arise 

 ramify throughout the earthen structure of the mound. 

 Mycelial swellings form in cells just beneath the crust of the 

 mound and the agaric breaks through the crust. It must be 

 conceded that the mycelium subsists upon the organic matter 

 in the matrix of the mound. It is to be remembered that 

 there is a good deal of grass incorporated in the substance of 



