108 NORTHERN TERRITORY TERMlTID.E^ i., 



tightly packed with short lengths of grass. In small, recently 

 constructed mounds, the outer walls and interior partitions are 

 very thin and easily broken, but, in the older and larger ones, 

 only the recently-added buttresses are fragile. The interior and 

 older buttresses are so strengthened, and the passages so cemented 

 up, that it is dijSicult to make any impression upon them, even 

 with a sharp pick. The writer has not made an investigation of 

 the interior of these giant mounds, but many of the smaller ones, 

 up to eight or nine feet in height, have been examined. In 

 every case, the interior was not sheathed in an enveloping wall, 

 such as exists in the termitaria of Coptotermes^ but the structure 

 and composition was similar throughout. 



The food consists of dry grass only, the principal stores of 

 which are found towards the outer walls from the ground to the 

 summit. Many of the galleries and passages, especially in the 

 upper middle portion, are frequently entirely filled with earthy 

 material and rejectamenta cemented into a solid mass. The 

 queen-cell is situated in the middle, and about six inches from 

 the ground Above and below the queen-cell, the structure is 

 more open and laminated, and contains the eggs and larvse. 

 Adult males have not been found with the queens, nor have com- 

 plementary queens been discovered. 



The whole structure rests upon the natural surface of the 

 ground, and a number of tunnels pass out under the walls into 

 the surrounding soil. These tunnels are flattened (averaging 

 about 5 mm., by 20-50 mm.) and lie obliquely to the surface, pre- 

 sumably to facilitate the carrying of comparatively long pieces 

 of grass along them to the termitarium. When stores of grass 

 are to be gathered, openings are cut through the intervening 

 soil to the surface, and the soldiers and workers pour out in all 

 directions. The tunnels lie a few inches under the surface, and 

 extend outward from the mound for some considerable distance 

 (44 feet in one instance). The food is gathered quickly by the 

 workers, carried to the openings, and thence underground to the 

 termitarium. The tunnels are kept in repair, and are occupied 

 throughout the year. Harvesting is done in the dry season, and 

 at night or early in the morning. 



