Fungus Food of certain Termites 141 



have dispersed, dries up, the stalk remaining for a long while 

 like a short pointed stick of wood. Very often, immediately 

 after this fungus has developed and before the spores have 

 ripened, the termites construct a clay collar about the base of its 

 stalk. This collar seems to give no practical protection and is 

 seldom made; however, that it is made is indicative of a benign 

 relationship. When the spores have dispersed, the greater part 

 of the base of the Pcdaxon within the mound is eaten away by 

 the termites. Sjostedt gave the name agricola to the 7'nnervi- 

 termes mentioned because he was misled by the account Bequaert 

 (1913) gives of its nest and the fungus associated therewith. It 

 is abundantly clear from this writer's illustration and remarks 

 that he found growing over the surface and in the chimneys of 

 the nest of a Termes (probably T. latericius) a small agaric, 

 and in probing the soil shallowly below the agarics he found a 

 Trinervitermes which simply had galleries in the clay thrown 

 up by the Termes and was quite unconnected with the fungus 

 except, perhaps, in a predatory sense. 



The true fungus-growers, those making special combs com- 

 posed of more or less digested matter upon which white spheres 

 grow, all belong to the Termes Group as represented by the 

 following African genera: Acanthotermes Sjost. Allodontermes 

 Silv., MacYoiermes (sensu Fuller), Termes Linn., (=OdontO' 

 termes sensu Holmgren), Microtermes Wasmann and Ancistro' 

 termes Silv. 



It has not fallen to either of us to find any large agaric 

 associated in any definite way with the nests of the species be- 

 longing to these genera. In Ceylon, however. Fetch (1906) 

 made an elaborate study of an agaric frequently found grow- 

 mg from the old comb in the nests of certain fungus-growing 

 termites of that island. Of it he says: 



" This agaric appears in two forms, one of which has 

 been assigned by various mycologists to Lentinus, Colly^bta, 

 Pluteus, PhoUota, and Flammula, and the other to 

 Armillaria. It develops in a cartilaginous, almost gelatinous, 

 universal veil and is a modified Volvaria. 



