226 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



havilandi, which he found to be a harvester, and 

 there is every probability that the material harvested 

 is devoted to the cultivation of fungi. During the 

 heat of the day the workers issue from holes in the 

 ground, and with their well-developed jaws cut 

 the grass into lengths of about two inches. These 

 pieces they carry to the mouths of the holes and 

 often leave them there until they have cut sufficient. 

 Where acacia-bushes are growing they also gather 

 the leaflets of that plant. 



After the heat of the day has passed they take 

 down the heaps that have accumulated around the 

 holes and store the material in chambers about 

 five feet below the surface. A few chambers near 

 the surface may be used temporarily, but these 

 only hold as much as could be collected in the 

 course of an hour or two. Sometimes, after taking 

 in all the cut leaves, they bring up pellets of 

 clay in their jaws and stop the mouths of the 

 holes with it. 



Petch has found fungus chambers in the nests of 

 a Termite in Peradeniya Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, 

 and several Indian species are among the fungus- 

 growers. In the case of the Ceylon species Petch 

 says that the spongy masses which constitute the 

 fungus beds are wholly formed of the excrement 

 of the workers, and that not only are special fungi 

 cultivated on it, but that other fungi, not desired 

 by the Termites, grow, and are weeded out by the 

 workers ; when a nest is abandoned these " weeds " 

 grow unchecked. 



