TKKMITl-: liCOXOMV. 6^ 



creature, useful to the farmer as chicken food, to the household 

 as providing- suitable material for making- dargai floors and to- 

 the " sport " as an excellent thing for tennis courts. Ample 

 evidence has, however, been collected to show that in drier ])arts 

 of the countrv, not only does it remove a larg-e ])roportion of the 

 g^rass, but renders patches of the veld practically sterile. In short, 

 it seriously reduces the feeding value of any piece of g^round it 

 occupies, and, in tin.ie of drought, its depredations are of vast 

 sig-nificance. 



Speaking of termites as a whole, my investig-ations have 

 shown that grass is their normal food. The majority prefer it 

 dry, and those that collect green grass deliberately make hay,. 

 or rather chaff, of it. The destruction of living trees is restricted 

 to \ery few species and seems to occur only when the natural sur- 

 roundings of the nest have been arbitrarily interfered with. The 

 predilection which all except the harvesting termites display for 

 dead and, especially, decaying wood is so very marked that this 

 may be said to be their food by preference. 



Up to the present, the evidence connecting species directly 

 with damage of the sort usually comj^lained of goes to show that 

 only a few species are involved. AH the damage to buildings 

 which I have olxserved has been done by one of two species,. 

 Haviland's iiatalcnsis and badius, the latter being very rarely the 

 culprit. The bulk of the destruction of young trees is done by 

 nata/ciisis. and it is oid\- occasionallv that otlier sj^ecies are con- 

 cerned in it. 



Perhaps the principal feature of interest that I have been 

 able to establish is that the oft-repeated statement to the eft'ect 

 that the adults or winged insects are incapable of founding a new 

 colony, unless adopted by stragglers from another, is incorrect. 



Up to the present I have been able to induce four different 

 species to establish voung colonies and maintain themselves and 

 their progeny under most artificial conditions for periods now 

 ranging from three to six months. From the progress made in 

 this connection, it would ai)pear that the adult termites are able to 

 sustain themselves and at the same time feed and rear a number 

 of young, without taking nourishment. 



Nothing is perhaps more elusive than the impregnation of 

 the female termite, and nothing indicating direct relations 

 between the two sexes has yet been observed. Whilst this is the 

 case, and the fertilising of the ova is still a mysterv, mating, 

 under natural conditions, during the marriage flight has been noted 

 in the case of five S])ecies. In each of these the details of the 

 procedure diff'ered in small l)ut essential particulars. In every 

 case mating occurs after the insects come to rest, and it is always 

 the female wdiich first alights, and no sooner is this done than 

 the creature endeavours to attract a male to her, by inflating her 

 abdomen and directing it uj^wards. In all cases it would a])pear 

 that the male is directed by an olfactory sense, and 'it is obvious- 

 that some females are much more potent in attracting than are 

 others. In one species, th.e females, when coming to rest, throw 



