40 Claude Fuller 



and the sculpture is more sharply defined in this caste than in 

 other species; this difference is plainly discernible when the sol- 

 diers of thomseni are compared with those of other species. 



This termite inhabits that portion of the Great Karroo known 

 as De Ghoup where it builds, over its nest sites, extremely hard 

 conical mounds, remarkable for their symmetry. Many of 

 these mounds attain a height of between three and four feet. 

 It is the only Hodotermes building a mound over its nest site. 

 Similar mounds have been seen in the Karroo in the northern 

 part of the Ceres district where the environment is like that of De 

 Ghoup. 



Hodotermes silvestrii sp.n. 



= H. viator sens. Silvestri (1908). 



The imagos of this species are much in agreement with H. 

 viator. They differ in having the tergites of the abdomen golden 

 yellow like H. peringueyi^ except that first tergite has a wide, 

 brown band extending across the anterior half and that the 

 pronotum is parti-coloured; it may be described as being some- 

 what cream-coloured with a wide transverse brown band. The 

 outline of the pronotum closely approaches that of viator ^ but 

 the margin of the front lobe bends into that of the anterior lateral 

 corners at a more definite angle. 



The mandibles of the soldiers agree closely with those of 

 viator as regards the third tooth of the left. 



This is essentially the Namaqualand-Bushmanland Hodotermes 

 s.s. and ranges from van Rhynsdorp to the Orange River. Imagos 

 have also been taken at Victoria West. 



Hodotermes faurei sp.n. 



The imagos of this species are structurally in agreement wath 

 H. silvestrii. Otherwise they approximate those of H. viator 

 but are darker, especially below, the abdominal sternites being 

 brown except that the first two or three may be yellowish in the 

 middle. The mandibles are brown, not yellow and only the 

 tips of the tibiae and the tarsi are pale, being pale browTi. Only 

 dealate imagos known. This may prove to be a dark form of //. 

 silvestrii. Locality Victoria West. 



