The Termites of South Africa 77 



intermingling. That such does occur elsewhere I have no doubt 

 «ince I have collected imagos of natalensis at lights in Lourengo 

 Marques and received soldiers and workers from Inhambane, two 

 localities in which bellicosus is the predominant species. 



Sjostedt (1900), writing of the imago of M. natalensis, says 

 in effect: 



" Remarkably similar in general appearance to bellicosus 

 with which it has long been confused. The wings of 

 natalensis are, however, longer and more uniformly 

 wide. Of all the imagos of bellicosus I have seen the 

 greatest span was 68 mm. On every occasion when, by 

 the aid of the accompanying soldiers, I could determine 

 natalensis with certainty, the span of the imago was 

 72 to 76 mm. As to structure, colour, antenna, etc. 

 natalensis seems to be like bellicosus.** 



In this connection it will subsequently be shown that as between 

 natalensis and bellicosus there is nothing specific in the span of the 

 wings and that imagos of both species exist with wing-spans 

 greater than those cited by Sjostedt for natalensis. . Concerning 

 the span of bellicosus Sjostedt says: 



'* The imago is not constant in size. The smallest I have 



seen were from Togo but these were accompanied by 



others of normal size. The imagos generally have a 



span of 61 to 67 mm." 



By including the smallest Sjostedt mentions the recorded span 



of bellicosus becomes 54 to 67 mm. The imagos of bellicosus 



before me from various South African sources have a span of 69 



to 80 mm. so that, the inclusive span must be 54 to 80 mm. 



whilst the span of natalensis from various South African sources 



is 69 to 86 mm. The convenience of diagnosing the imagos of 



the two species upon the length of the wings, in South Africa, 



disappeared very early in my enquiry into the matter. To 



this it may be added that the length of the wings of these two 



species seems in some obscure way to be governed by latitude and 



altitude, the evidence at least pointing to the wings being longer 



at higher altitudes than lower. 



/^', vi ^i 'C 4 7 



