The Termites of South Africa 37 



must have been a conjecture. Burmeister speaks of the head being 

 dark coloured, mouth, antennae and legs paler. He adds that 

 the species inhabits sandy treeless parts where the cone-shaped 

 mounds appear from a distance like the huts of the inhabitants.* 



Hagen (1858) furnished a more elaborate description of 

 viator comparing it with H. mossamhicus. That part of the 

 description which applies to the imagos was drawn up from 

 several dried males and females, the types of Burmeister. The 

 account of the worker clearly relates to Latrielle's type, but 

 mention is made of five " younger " forms of paler colour. The 

 description of the soldier was based upon two specimens, both of 

 which Hagen for some reason regarded as dwarfed — (nicht ganz 

 ausgewachsens). 



One of these two soldiers belonged to Schoenherr's collection 

 in the Stockholm Museum (e.g. that used by Sjostedt for his 

 diagnosis) ; the imagos were collected by Krebs and Mund. 

 Hagen says that the relationship of imago with worker and soldier 

 is based only upon a conjecture although confirmed by the speci- 

 mens in the Berlin Museum belonging to one collection. From 

 this it may be gathered that a r>oldier and five workers accom- 

 panied Krebes' and Mund's imagos. Unfortunately, here, as with 

 the type, it is not nowadays possible to place precisely the locality 

 where the specimens were obtained. 



In his description of the imago Hagen says: '* Dark brown, 

 head and thorax black brown; the mouth, the antennae, the front 

 margin of the pronotum, the tips of the tibiae and tarsi yellowish". 

 It can only be inferred that the unmentioned parts of the limbs 

 were dark brown; although this is not supported by either the 

 older description of Burmeister (1839) or the newer of Sjostedt 

 (1900). However that the rest of the legs are dark may be 

 gathered from the fact that Sjostedt found an imago from Hex 

 River to agree with the types; this could only have had dark legs 



*The mounds referred to could only have been those of 

 Trinervitermes sp. At Malmesbury Mr. W. R. Birch, of the 

 Division of Entomology, has found a colony of H. viato)- nesting 

 in a deserted mound of Trinervitermes. The interior of ^e 

 mound being converted into a typical Hodotermes nest The ae- 

 scription of the country applies to the environment of aurmUn. 



