317 



by placing the end of the tube in water, thus allowing the ab- 

 sorbent cotton to draw a suflicient amount of water through the 

 pore. As a result of these investigations, the following facts were 

 determined : 



1. Duiiiig tlie fust stage of colonization both the male and the female 



are active. They forage for themselves and are equally im- 

 portant in establishing the new colony and in rearing the first 

 brood of young. 



2. Egg laying in a newly established colony begins from five to thir- 



teen days after the swarming. 



3. The rate of egg laying is not rapid in the first batchy one to four 



eggs being laid on one day. 



4. Eggs hatch out in from twenty-four to thirty-two days after they 



are laid. 



5. After five months of captivity, the nests in two of the tubes were 



opened. In these there were no unhatched eggs; the king and 

 the queen, which still retained the normal form of the imago, ran 

 actively, in company with rather small individuals of the worker 

 type and soldiers. The number of individuals in each nest 

 agreed well; one contained twenty-two individuals of the worker 

 type and two soldiers, the other, twenty individuals of the 

 w^orker type and three soldiers. These facts clearly show that 

 about twenty-five eggs compose the first batch in a newly estab- 

 lished colony, and that no more eggs are laid until the eggs of 

 the first brood are all hatched. 



(i. In the first brood the soldiers are few in comparison with indi- 

 viduals of the w^orker type, about 10 per cent of the number 

 of the latter being soldiers. 



7. Soldiers hatch from the eggs that are laid by true royal females.2 



SITUATION OF THE NEST 



Coptotcrmes formosanus does not construct a large mound as 

 do some species in the Tropics. Usually it makes its nest in the 

 ground at a depth of from 6 to 10 feet (1.82 to 3.04 meters). 

 Very often the nest is made at the junction of rafters of buildings 

 or in the inner part of infested timbers, in wooden boxes or 

 cabinets, or in the interspaces in walls. Generally the nest is 

 round and honeycombed, and in the center there is a small, slitlike 

 royal chamber. 



The nest consists of a mixture of abdominal excreta and clay 

 or sand, pasted together with a special secretion of the salivary 

 glands. Sometimes it is rigid and compact and seems like a piece 

 of rock. However, it is inflammable and burns rapidly, leaving 

 a small amount of ash. 



-As it is almost impossible from external characters to draw a fast line 

 between larvae of royal forms and of workers, nothing at present can be 



DAMAGE TO BUILDINGS AND OTHER MATERIALS 



Coptotcrmes formosanus is essentially a wood destroyer and 

 attacks very seriously all sorts of woodwork and wooden struc- 

 tures. Because of its habit of attacking Japanese pine, which is 

 an important building material, it is classed as a most formidable 

 pest throughout Formosa. Moreover, as the method of attack 



