674 TERMITES OR WHITE ANTS. 



and mammals. However, all the species of the section to which T. 

 umbrinus belongs traverse the jungle, returning home by daylight 

 exposed in long lines which take an hour or more to pass one spot, the 

 soldiers walking beside the laden workers. In most of the species the 

 soldiers and workers retreat when disturbed; but in T. longipes the 

 behavior is unusually active. The workers vanish at once beneath 

 sticks and leaves; and if specimens be not quickty secured, they will 

 soon be very hard to find. The soldiers, on the other hand, rush to the 

 attack, not in line, but singly; climbing every leaf and stalk, they 

 stand with unlifted rostrum challenging the enemy. But these species 

 with rostrum and rudimentary mandibles are not the only ones which 

 secrete a viscid fluid from the head. The soldiers of T. foram'mifer, 

 which have a saddle-shaped pronotum and long crooked mandibles, 

 also have a minute orifice in the front of the head. In all the species 

 of Rhinotermes the soldiers have a similar foramen and a shallow 

 groove which runs from it to the tip of the labrum. T. malayanus 

 has a similar minute foramen, the orifice of a sac occup^'ing the mid- 

 dle of the head. Most soldiers of the fungus growers and also those 

 of T. sulphiin us, when angry, discharge a viscid fluid from large sali- 

 vary vesicles opening into the mouth. The most remarkable form of 

 orifice in the front of the head is in the section Coptotermes. The sol- 

 diers of both T. gestroi and T. t /'avians have very large orifices in the 

 front of the head from which, when angry, they emit a copious white 

 viscid fluid which runs down to the mandibles. The soldiers of T. 

 gestroi are very ferocious. The species is one which deliberately 

 attacks and destroys live trees. The workers build up a thick earthy 

 crust round the stem of the tree for the height of 7 or 8 feet from the 

 ground: beneath this crust the} r leisurely seek out weak spots and 

 penetrate to the center of the tree. If the crust be broken, the 

 workers very quickly retreat; but the soldiers rush to the attack, a 

 white milky fluid standing between their open jaws; they lift them- 

 selves up and then hammer their heads against the tree, producing a 

 rattling sound. If left alone they soon retire under cover; but if one 

 breaks into their retreat, out they come again in great excitement, 

 hammering their heads, opening and .shutting their jaws, and discharg- 

 ing their milky secretion. In the section of the fungus growers to 

 which T. bellicosus belongs the workers run away to their subterranean 

 passages when the nest is being opened, while the soldiers stay to 

 defend the nest; generally the smaller soldiers are more active titan 

 the larger, for they run about while the larger occupy the crevices of 

 the nest and the cavities of the fungus buds, where they wait and bite 

 at anything which conn's in reach. The soldiers of this group can 

 generally produce the rattling sound. In this accomplishment T. 

 carbonarius has reached the highest stage of development, for the 

 soldiers can hammer in rhythmic unison. At first a few begin irreg- 



