90 



BULUETIN 108, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



earth and excrement extended up from the ground. (Fig. 60.) These 

 tubes have been called the "adobe houses" of white ants (pi. 5). 

 The suspended tubes, constructed by R. claripennis Banks from the 

 infested wooden beams which supported the flooring of a building 

 of the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan, Kans., 

 were 3 to 8 inches long and more or less flattened. The tubes ended 

 2 or 3 feet above the ground. Termites are soft-bodied and always 

 conceal themselves within the wood or within their tubes. In bur- 

 rowing through wood they often completely honeycomb it, usually 

 following the grain and eating out the softer, thin-walled, larger- 

 celled spring or new wood. The species of Reticulitermes are able to 

 penetrate the hardest of woods, and even attack diy, seasoned wood, 

 provided there is access to moisture in the ground. They carry 



moisture with them in ex- 

 tending their galleries by 

 means of moist excrement 

 mixed with earth up to even 

 the second and third floors 

 of buildings. 



Since the excavators (the 

 workers) are soft-bodied, 

 lack pigmentation, and are 

 bhnd, there are many ene- 

 mies to the colony, and it 

 is often necessary to come 

 above ground in order to 

 attain access to wood. How 

 is this difficulty solved? 

 They take the ground out 

 along with them and either 

 construct covered runways 

 or tunnels by plastering it 

 on the surface or carry moist 

 earth into their galleries within wood. Thus they are enabled to travel 

 far from the ground and its necessary moisture, even to the tops of 

 trees and the third floor of buildings. 



Charles Darwin's conclusions regarding the r61e of the earthworm 

 of temperate zones in furthering the natural fertility of the soil by 

 constantly turning it over, plowing it, and carrying it to the surface 

 in their excavations are well known. 



Prof. Henry Drummond (1889), in Chapter 6 of "Tropical Africa," 

 compares the role of subterranean termites of the Tropics to that ol 

 the earthworm. There is a constant circulation of earth — a plowing 

 and a harrowing, pellet by pellet, grain by grain. Furthermore, the 

 vegetable substances taken as food by the termites pass through 



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Fig. 60.— Reticitlitermes flavd?er. Suspended tubes 

 constructed by "workers from broken off pine 



tree to GROUND. X 3. 



