110 NORTHERN TERRITORY TERMITIDJi:, \., 



As a rule, they work under cover of an enveloping crust of 

 earthy material, and their detection is easy; but, sometimes, con- 

 siderable damage is done before they make their appearance on 

 exposed surfaces. Regular termitaria or mounds are rarely, if 

 ever, constructed in the northern part of the Territory, nor are 

 the young reared in trees, logs, etc., either on or above the surface 

 of the ground. It is a rule that the workers and soldiers make 

 their way in tunnels from distant underground nests, coming up 

 under the box or log, as the case may be, covering it with a thin 

 earthy crust, and rapidly reducing it to a mere shell. Occasion- 

 ally, one finds large nyraphse with rudimentary wings, or, late in 

 the wet season^ fully developed winged insects in such positions, 

 but the young larvae, nymphs, and eggs are not found in these 

 feeding-places. Although frequent attempts have been made to 

 follow these tunnels back to the nests, the writer has never met 

 with success, either owing to the fact that they were lost under 

 buildings, or in ground where it was impossible to keep their 

 course. 



One termitarium, possibly proving the exception to the rule 

 that Rhinotermes do not build mounds, was found at Batchelor. 

 This was a black, cone-shaped mass of earth and triturated wood, 

 18 inches high, by 12 inches in diameter at the base, built at 

 the side of a stump, which itself was enveloped in a crust of 

 similar composition. Both the stump and the termitarium 

 swarmed with termites, but the latter contained no queen or 

 young. The structure resembled others in the vicinity, which 

 were occupied by Eutermes, excepting that it differed somewhat 

 in the amount of wood in its composition. 



Winged swarms appear in Darwin about the beginning of 

 March. 



Lepisma sp., and the small Tenebrionid beetle, Aphitohius 

 piceus OIL, are frequently associated with these termites. 



The larvae of a Tachinid fly destroy Rhinotermes under natural 

 conditions, but they are too rare to constitute an effective natural 

 control (two examples only have been taken by the writer). The 

 parasites were taken in termite-galleries under a log, at Batchelor, 

 on 10th July. Each was surrounded by about eighty dead 



