NO. 7 PROTECTIVE ADAPTATIONS McATEE 3I 



ISOPTERA (termites) 



Protective adaptations. — Termites pass most of their lives concealed 

 in galleries in wood or underground or in well-built nests. They have 

 strong jaws, a caste of soldiers especially well-armed in this respect, 

 and they emit a corrosive secretion. The color is usually yellowish 

 to brownish, but some species have the body reddisli and the wings 

 dark, nearly black, thus having a coloration approaching that termed 

 warning. 



Bird enemies. — Stomach examination has revealed termites in the 

 dietary of 38 species of nearctic birds. The occasions when termites 

 are available to most birds are infrequent, but when they come, the 

 insects usually are in great abundance. Accordingly large numbers 

 are eaten, and single stomachs have yielded as many as 215 termites 

 in the case of a nighthawk, 400 in that of a pileated woodpecker, and 

 1,100 in that of a flicker. The writer has twice observed numbers of 

 English sparrows gobbling up termites upon emergence and Hagen 

 has recorded ^ a case in which 15 species of birds were in attendance 

 on a swarm of white ants, the robins among them so gorging them- 

 selves that their bills stood open. 



Number of identifications, 129; percentage of identifications among 

 those of all insects, .0677 ; percentage of species in this group among 

 the whole number of insect species known, .0911. 



Other enemies.- — ^Termites are as much sought after by some other 

 animals as they are by birds and even are eaten by man. It has been 

 said that in the Tropics " The flight of the winged termites is a great 

 event in the animal year." " In India cockroaches, frogs, lizards, rats, 

 hats, jackals, mongooses, jungle cats, and dogs have been observed ' 

 preying upon them. In the United States, besides wild birds and 

 domestic fowls, salamanders, frogs, toads, lizards, spiders, centipeds, 

 crickets, robberflies, ants, and beetle larvae prey upon termites. The 

 insects have parasites also among the fungi, protozoa, nematodes, 

 and mites.'' 



Discussion. — The enemies of termites are comparatively well- 

 known, not wholly because they are numerous or active, but also 

 because termites are " economic " insects and have therefore been the 

 subject of considerable study from many points of view. Althougli 



* Hagen, H., Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 20, p. 118, (1878-1880) 1881. 

 ^Longstaff, G. B., in Shelford, R., Naturalist in Borneo, p. 37, 1916. 

 ' Rothney, G. A. J., Proc. Ent. Soc. London, 1918, pp. l.xiv-lxvi. 

 *For an account of these miscellaneous enemies, see Snyder, T. E., U. S. Nat. 

 Mus. Bull. 108, pp. 116-118, 1920. 



