500 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1964 



There are probably differences as well in tlie frequency with which 

 colonies are headed by macropteroiis reproductives or by supplemen- 

 tary forms of Pacific coast and eastern species. Apparently fewer 

 colonies on the Pacific coast are founded by primary reproductives 

 than in the Eastern States. 



COMMUNICATION 



Dr. A. M. Stuart, an entomologist from New Zealand, now at the 

 University of Chicago, in 1961 published on laboratory experiments 

 with trail-laying by Zootermopsis nevadensis. A substance secreted 

 by a gland in the ventral part of the fifth segment of the abdomen 

 produced a clear-cut trail following. The nymphs are often seen 

 dragging their abdomens along the ground when moving, thus bring- 

 ing the fifth segment in contact with the substrate or surface. The 

 substance from the gland can quite easily escape from the reservoir 

 onto the surface on which the insect is crawling. Nymphs accurately 

 followed the path. It leads termites to follow a straight line to food. 



In a later paper (1963a), Stuart found the trails which the termites 

 follow to be odor trails. In southwestern United States and northern 

 Mexico, species of Reticulitermes build shelter tubes straight up to 

 a beam on walls of adobe houses. 



Also in 1963 Stuart (1963b) discovered that there is a directional 

 vector in the commmiication of alarm by ZooterTiiopsis. This vector 

 was a trail laid by an alarmed termite from the point of disturbance 

 to the main area of the nest. Individuals are recruited to the site 

 of alarm by following such trails. Alarm is transmitted prmcipally 

 by contact. 



SPECIALIZED FORMS 



Dr. K. Krishna (1961) listed systematically the protozoa of the 

 family Kalotermitidae.^ These low forms of animal life live in the 

 intestines of about 500, or one-fourth, of the 2,100 known species of 

 termites in a symbiotic relationship and contain enzymes which digest 



1 Also in 1961, Dr. Krishna, then at the University of Chicago, now at the American 

 Museum of Natural History at New York, revised the family Kalotermitldae. Several 

 termites of the United States had their names changed. Kalotermes jouteli Banks of 

 southern Florida was placed in Neotermes ; Kalotermes occidantia (Walker) of Arizona 

 was placed in Pteroternies ; Kalotermes arizonensis Snyder of Arizona, K. hanksi Snyder 

 of Arizona and Texas, K. milleri Emerson of southern Florida, K. minor Hagen of Cali- 

 fornia, Utah, and Arizona, K. schwarzi Banks of southern Florida and K. snyderi Light of 

 southeastern United States were all placed in Inciaitermes Krishna ; and Procryptotermea 

 hubbardi (Banks) of Arizona and California was placed in Marginitermes Krishna. Only 

 a few species of economic importance are involved. 



Such changes, however, are hard to accept by workers in economic control work and 

 pest control operators, who have terms of "Kalis" for the termites, and "Kalo guns" for 

 equipment in the control of drywood termites in California. They may find it difficult to 

 refer to Kalotermes minor as Inciaitermes minor. 



