60 



JOURNAL OF THE 



[Api 



pass to and fro. Blind soldiers are stationed in the galleries 

 in case of a break to guard it and to call the workers to 

 repair the breach. 



The Eutermes quickly construct nests is buildings, or in 

 unused cars. The largest specimen of a nest here exhibited is 

 from a freight-car, which had been standing on a siding for a 

 few months, and was attacked by the Eutermes and rendered 

 useless. They constructed their galleries up the wheels from 

 the ground, and so gained access to the wood-work of the car, 



Fig. 3.— Mr. J. Beaumoat's " Ne plus ultra Termitariuni," a, glass jar, six by nine 

 inches, two-thirds filled with soil ; b, trunk of a small tree, two inches in 

 diameter, which the Termites had surrounded with a globular nest ; fixed in 

 the centre of the soil, and measuring eighteen inches from the bottom of the 

 jar to the bottom of the nest ; c, one of two braces steadying the nest; d, 

 nest, ten and one-half inches long ; e, eroded upper portion of tree, projecting 

 through nest ; /', breach made in nest ; g, bridge leading from breach ; ?i, 

 "annex jar," one-third filled with soil. When in use the jars stand in bowls 

 partly filled with water. 



which was so completely tunnelled that it was rendered unsafe. 

 This was undoubtedly an auxilliary nest, as no queen-cell was 

 found. It is not uncommon to find two or three auxilliary nests, 

 with young but no queen-cells, near the parental nest. 



Examination of the queen-cells shows, that while, in some 

 respects, they are similar in the slight arching and height of the 

 roof from the floor, they still vary greatly in length and breadth. 

 The largest queen of Eutermes, so far found upon the Isthmus, 



