OBSERVATIONS ON SOME SOUTH AFRICAN TERMITES. 471 



Head. — Above pale yellow, or pale reddish-yellow, or 

 pale reddisli-brown ; cephalic extremity always the darker, 

 paler beneath except gula. Vertex with three parnllel 

 brown stripes below chitin, one median and two sub-median ; 

 median stripe often shortly bifurcate at fontanelle and some- 

 times extending- over occiput to occipital foramen ; submedian 

 stripes sometimes confluent in frontal area from which they 

 diverge and running parallel to the median stripe pass 

 over occipital region and traverse the middle line of each 

 ventral gena (indicating the obsolete demarcation of the 

 post-genge from the genas) ; all three stripes strongly or 

 faintly indicated, or only partly indicated; the median 

 frequently faint and often abbreviated, only extending from 

 fontanelle towards occipital region; submedian stripes 

 frequently abbreviated and then only expressed upon occipital 

 region ; submedian stripes infrequently branched, forming a 

 veined pattern and then upon both dorsal and ventral surfaces. 



Elongate and somewhat flattened ; surface smooth, 

 polished, with scattered hairs, dorsal outline horseshoe- 

 shaped, broadest in caudal region ; caudal margin broadly 

 curvate ; cephalic width a little more than half greatest 

 width (but variable) ; sometimes faintly compressed at the 

 level of the antennal fossas. 



The rang-e of the measurements made on ten insects from 

 three nests is given in the following table : 



Fontanelle always present, often black, often indistinct. 



Frontal area depressed and sloping, features kaleidoscopic. 

 Depression bordered by frontal grooves, these grooves origi- 

 nate at the caudo-lateral corners of the clypeus, they con- 

 verge shortly and then diverge and shallow-out at the level 

 of the antennal fossaj (or recurve and embi'ace paired, low, 



