REVISION OF NEARCTIC TERMITES. 145 



Family TERMITIDAE Banks. 



Subfamily Rhinotermitinae Froggatt. 



Genus PRORHINOTERMES Sllvestri. 



There is only one species in this genus in the United States, 

 namely, ProrJiinotermes (Termes) simplex, which was described by 

 Hagen from Cuba. Desneux (1904) placed the species simplex in 

 the genus RTiinotermes Hagen (1858); Holmgren (1911) placed this 

 termite in the genus ArrTiinotermes Wasmann (1903). 



PRORHINOTERMES SIMPLEX Hagen. 



For taxonomy see pp. 39-42. 



P. simplex is a species native to the West Indies. 



Prof. P. Cardin has kindly loaned to the junior author specimens 

 of soldiers and winged adults of this termite he collected on "October 

 30, 1915, at Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba; dead tree near the experi- 

 ment station. " 



A. H. Ritchie, Government entomologist, foimd workers and 

 soldiers of P. simplex damaging piled lumber at Kingston, Jamaica, 

 British West Indies, on March 15, 1918. 



In the United States, Prorhinotermes simplex occurs only locally 

 in southern Florida. It was first foimd in the United States on June 

 4, 1916, by W. E. Brown at Miami Beach, Florida, in the solid dry 

 wood of a dead red mangrove tree, at the edge of a swamp, associ- 

 ated with Kalotermes schwarzi Banks. Mr. Brown and the writer 

 had collected termites in this mangrove swamp in May, and, after 

 the writer's return to Washington, Mr. Brown kindly sent him speci- 

 mens he had later collected. The swamp was fairly dry in May, 

 the bottom being partly dry, caked mud, and is located between the 

 ocean and Biscayne Bay. There are many dead trees at the edges 

 of the swamp, and termites {Kalotermes) are common in these trees 

 and in the more sohd wood of decaying logs on the ground. 



In the spring of 1917 the writer made special effort to find specimens 

 of this termite in southern Florida. In addition to Miami Beach, it 

 was found on Adam Key (Dade County), an offshore reef about 27 

 miles south of Miami and near the Monroe County line. 



Prorhinotermes simplex occurs commonly along the seacoast; at 

 Miami Beach, in a mangrove swamp along the coast and on Biscayne 

 Bay; at Adam Ke}^, a coral reef in the ocean, in a dense hammock. 

 Possibly the species was introduced into this country in logs of 

 driftwood. This termite also occurs in pineland areas in the Lower 

 "Everglades," the so-called Indian Hunting Ground, in the vicinity 

 of Homestead, Florida. 



