98 BULLETIN 108, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



termes, clean cultivation is to be recommended. Stubble should be 

 well turned and the fields plowed during the fall and winter. 



NONSUBTERRANEAN TERMITES. 



Termites that do not live in the earth of the genera Kaloiermes, 

 Neotermes, and Cryptotermes, subfamily Kalotermitinae, can not be 

 combated as the subterranean species by shutting them off from their 

 supply of moisture in the earth. They even infest dry wood directly 

 through crevices, cracks, or decayed places; they do not require 

 much moisture. Of course, their breeding places in decayed wood 

 should be destroyed. Where these species are abundant, windows and 

 doors in buildings should be screened, especially during the period of 

 swarming or flight. In unscreened buildings the lights should be put 

 out during the swarm. Fumigation with hydrocyanic acid gas ^ will 

 kill these termites in furniture, stored material, or exposed timbers of 

 small dimensions. Since species in these genera swarm at night and 

 are attracted to lights in large numbers, the winged adults can be 

 trapped by catching them in large shallow receptacles full of oil or 

 water and placed under lights. 



The unprotected woodwork of buildings should be treated with 

 chemical wood preservatives. 



Function op the Swarm or Aerial Colonizing Flight. 



The terms "swarm" and "nuptial flight" are not appropriate 

 in referring to the emergence of the winged sexual adult termites, 

 which is merely a colonizing flight. After a short flight the males and 

 females alight on the ground and separate into pairs. ^ There is a 

 marked sexual attraction and the males follow the females about. 

 The females find a suitable site for the new colony and the pair become 

 established. Sexual mating or copulation does not take place at the 

 time of the swarm, which is therefore not a nuptial fhght. Neither 

 does copulation take place immediately after the swarm, but only 

 after the pair are established in the new colony and the sexual organs 

 have matured. Usually males and females from the same colony 

 mate, but sometimes they mate with individuals from nearby colonies 

 which are swarming at the same time. 



These insects that have taken this fhght never return again to the 

 same colony — that is, the parent colony — but form new colonies. 



Usually the colonizing adults of the same species make their first 

 flight, which is the largest in numbers, at the same time, over a wide 

 area of country. This annual production of winged sexual adults in 

 enormous numbers is undoubtedly for the further diffusion and per- 

 petuation of the species; a wider diffusion can be accomplished by 

 flight than through subterranean tunnels; furthermore, places other- 



1 1916. Howard, L. O. and Popenoe, C. H. Hydrocyanic-acid Gas Against Household Insects, Far- 

 mers' Bull. 699, U. S. Dept. Agric, April. 

 2 Species of Reticulitermes. 



