BY G. F. HILL. 109 



The soldiers are very numerous and pugnacious. If a portion 

 of the mound is damaged, they quickly cluster about the breach 

 to protect the workers while repairs are being effected. The 

 mouth-parts are not adapted for biting, but, from the tip of the 

 snout, they eject a clear, honey-like fluid, which appears to pos- 

 sess caustic properties, besides impeding the actions of attacking 

 predaceous ants. This secretion does not appear on the snout as 

 a drop, but leaves it in a fine jet, which has the appearance of a 

 silken thread waving from the tip. In defence, the Eutermes 

 are more formidable than any of the apparently better-armed 

 Termes. Even powerful ants, such as Odontomachus ruficeps, 

 are sometimes driven off by the little Eutermes. 



There is no evidence to support the assertion that the termi- 

 taria are abandoned during the dry season. On the contrary, 

 the dry season is a period of great activity, and it is the season 

 when most, if not all, the food-supply is gathered. Moreover, it 

 would be a physical impossibility for a gravid queen to leave a 

 termitarium; and it is hardly conceivable that the workers and 

 soldiers would abandon her and the thousands of eggs and young- 

 larvae, upon which the welfare of the community depends, to 

 seek shelter in the few tunnels outside the mound, even were 

 these roomy enough to accommodate them. 



It is also erroneously stated by popular writers and others, 

 that these great structures are built of earth mined from below. 

 Doubtless, thn small quantity of earth removed in making 

 foraging tunnels is used in constructing the termitaria, but when 

 we consider how few and small tliese tunnels are, it is obvious 

 that the quantity of building-material obtained from them must 

 be very limited. With the exception of one species of Eutermes, 

 which builds a ver}^ small mound, all the termitt^s found in the 

 Territory collect the great bulk of the earth and sand used in 

 their termitaria, upon the surface. 



Rhinotermes reticulatus Froggatt. 



Froggatt, op. cit., 1896, p.540. 



This a common and very destructive species often found in 

 dead trees, fence-posts, stacks of timber, and in boxes, benches, 

 jute and cotton goods, harness, etc., stored in outhouses. 



