146 BULLETIN 108, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Apparently P. simplex is similar to species of Reticulitermes in 

 its habits, living in dead trees and logs; but unlike species of Reti- 

 culitermes this termite is not earth-inhabiting or subterranean. 

 Sometimes, however, individuals are found in earth beneath logs. 

 The hardest species of woods are riddled: the galleries are similar 

 to those made by species of Reticulitermes, and the wood is honey- 

 combed (pi. 24). The heartwood of logs is often more readily 

 penetrated through cracks, and these termites work between the 

 layers of wood. Open places or hollows encountered in logs are, 

 as by species of Reticulitermes, filled in with frass and excrement. 

 The galleries are spotted with the moist excrement. Moisture is 

 necessary for this termite, as it is in colonies of species of Reti- 

 culitermes and there is much very moist, finely digested excreted 

 wood in the galleries in logs. 



The castes apparently consist of the same forms as in the genus 

 Reticulitermes, workers, soldiers, and at least two types of repro- 

 ductive forms. The workers have yellow heads. (Fig. 26) . 



No winged forms have as yet been found in this country, but 

 nymphs with peculiar wing buds (fig. 69, 2) occur in colonies. 

 These wing buds are re<illy expanded thoracic plates and not ordinary 

 wing pads. The buds are fused in the mid line; there is a slight 

 median groove. The buds are not straight, as in Reticulitermes, 

 but curved. Due to this plate-like character of the buds, these 

 nymphs may be of the second form. However, the wing venation 

 is not so pronounced in nymphs of the second form. On April 10 

 and 18, 1918, colonies were found by the writer in a mangrove 

 swamp, near Miami Beach, with these nymphs with short wing pads 

 present. An especially large colony was found on April 18 con- 

 taining large egg clusters. 



Only two types of reproductive forms have as yet been found 

 in colonies of P. simplex in southern Florida, the normal first form 

 and the third form (fig. 69, 1.). Unlike in colonies of species of 

 Reticulitermes, the third reproductive form is a common type. 

 Other differences are pigmentation to the eye (the ommatidia of the 

 compound eye are well developed) and characteristic pigmentation 

 to the body. There are 17 to 18 segments to the antenna, as in 

 that of the winged adult, while in the worker there are 16 to 17 

 antennal segments, but occasionally 18. 



These apterous reproductive forms are numerous in colonies, one 

 large colony found by the writer at Adam Key, Florida, on March 

 21, 1917, in an ''ironwood" log (Eugenia confusa), containing 8 

 females and 2 males. The females are from 5 to 6^ mm. in length 

 with distended abdomens. Similar conditions were present in several 

 other large colonies of this termite found by the writer at Adam 

 Key and Miami Beach, from March 21 to April 11, 1917. Colonies 



