364 HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



TERMITES OR WHITE ANTS 



Termes flavipes et al. 



The so-called "white ants" are not ants and are not 

 even closely related to the true ants. As a matter of fact, 

 they are much nearer relatives of the cockroaches and 

 earwigs than of the true ants. In the South, they are 

 widely known as wood lice because they are always found 

 burrowing in pieces of wood. The termites resemble the 

 true ants, however, in certain notable habits. Like the 

 ants, they are social and live in colonies. Moreover, 

 there are several kinds of individuals composing the colony, 

 much as one will find in a colony of true ants. It is for 

 these reasons that they have been called ants. More- 

 over, they are light colored or dirty-white, hence the com- 

 mon appellation, "white ants." The termites become 

 decidedly injurious at times to books and buildings, as we 

 shall see. 



Distribution and habits. — These insects are widely 

 distributed over the world. They are found everywhere 

 in the United States, but are apt to become more of a pest 

 in the warmer Southern states than farther north. In 

 fact, it is in the tropics that termites are really found in 

 all their fullness of life and development. Drummond's 

 account of the termites and their habits in Central Africa 

 is a marvelous story of insect life. Our own Brazilian 

 species of termites seem to be quite as interesting as the 

 African ones, if we are to judge from the scattered accounts 

 that we have. In the tropics, these insects construct huge 

 mound nests (Plate VI) twelve feet or more in height and 

 build covered ways up the trunks of trees and from one 



