The Termites of South Africa 109 



From the lower elevations of Natal, Holmgren (1913) has 

 reported four species, all of which rest upon vague and unreliable 

 criteria and of none of which the imago is known. These are 

 called trinerviformis, auriceps, hulhiceps, and dubius and are de- 

 scribed in the order mentioned. I have been able to demonstrate 

 that all are one and the same species. 



As all the iraagos of this genus coming under my notice have 

 so many characters in conunon, I have refrained from giving 

 lengthy descriptions and in place thereof submitted synopses for 

 both images and nasuti including in these the other representatives 

 of the group so that the synopses take the form of a Key to the 

 Group. 



In order to make these synopses more compact certain abbre- 

 viations have frequently been introduced. Thus '* pro," " meso," 

 and " meta." stand for pronotum, mesonotum and metanotum, and 

 imqualified references to these sclerites relate to their posterior 

 margins. All measurements are given in millimetres without the 

 ** mm." The word " forewing " is represented by the letters f.w. 

 and the measurement given is the length of the blade without that 

 of the wing-stump ; the width, when introduced, is separated from 

 Ae length by the sigin X. "Head width" is abbreviated to 

 H.W. and is, unless otherwise stated, the shorter distance at 

 which the inner margins of the eyes lie apart. " Head length " is 

 contracted to H.L. and includes the length of the clypeus. Fon- 

 tonelle is reduced to *' font." Colour notes relate to specimens 

 submerged in alcohol. References to the fontanelle relate mainly 

 to its appearance when heads are cleared and mounted in balsam. 



I have divided the imagos of Trinervitermes into two groups 

 according to whether the lateral pores upon the stemites of the 

 venter are surrounded with brown or not. Here it may be added 

 that those species which exhibit no zone of colour around these 

 pores also differ from those that do in having rounder heads, 

 proportionately large eyes and broad ocelli; and, further the 

 tergites of the venter can be described as yellow with brown 

 patches around the lateral pores, whereas the other species tend to 

 have more brov/n than yellow on these tergites. There also 

 seems to be a constant difference in the ratio of the head length, 



