The Termites of South Africa 5 1 



IV. RHINOTERMES GROUP. 



Schedorhinotermes puiorius (Sjost.) sub species australis subsp.n. 

 I have hitherto regarded as Rhinotermes putorius Sjost. those 

 representatives of the genus coming under my notice at Beira (Por- 

 tuguese East Africa) and Durban (Natal). These determi- 

 nations (1915, 1919 and 1920) related to soldiers, workers and 

 dealate imagos. I have since obtained one winged imago from 

 Durban. 



Sjostedt has described two other species, lamanicnus (1911) 

 and hequertianus (1913) both from Congo; from this region he 

 has also reported putorius. However, putorius has been recorded 

 from Quite a number of places. Sjostedt gives the following 

 localities; Cameron, Fernando Po; Gabun, Congo (1900); 

 Sierre Leone (1904); Congo (1905); Usambara (1906). 

 Flolmgren (1913) determined material from several parts of 

 Zululand as putorius, and Silvestri (1914) reports the species 

 from French Guinea, Cameroon, and Gold Coast. Wasmann 

 (191 1 ) treats his material from the Upper and Lower Congo as 

 putorius. 



The imago of hequertianus is unknown. 



According to Sjostedt, lamanianus differs from putorius in the 

 following features: 

 (a) The imago is distinctly larger; joint III of its antennae Is 



clavate and much larger than joint II; the wings are much 



longer, 1 2 mm. as against 9 to 1 mm. 

 ^b) The major soldier has a more rectangular head, less narrowed 



in front ; the hind margins of the pronotum and mesonotum 



are distinctly incurvate; the abdomen is almost quite 



smooth. 

 As to whether these features are sufficient to establish the bio- 

 logical independence of lamanianus from putorius I am not able to 

 say. Our South African insect is certainly more agreeable with 

 the description of lamanianus than with that of putorius. How- 

 ever, I prefer to treat it as a sub-species of putorius. The imago? 



