112 JOURNAL OF THE [October, 



So far, on the Isthmus, the Calotennes have not shown any 

 evidence of constructing exterior galleries, or even of eating, or 

 breaking through the surfaces of the wood, which they are 

 destroying. Their presence in the wood is not easily detected, 

 as most of the wood is consumed as food. The wood is exca- 

 vated, or mined in rooms, or chambers, their greatest length 

 being in the longitudinal diameter of the fibres. The entrance 

 to the rooms is on one side, and about one-si.xteenth of an inch 

 in diameter — just sufficient for one insect at a time to enter. 

 The Calotennes have no workers, and have only about one per 

 cent, of soldiers, so far as observed, on the Isthmus. Only one 

 entrance to a room, or chamber, requires far less soldiers to 

 guard the chambers, than it does the long galleries of the 

 Termes and Eutermes. 



The queens of the Calotennes, which have been captured on 

 the Isthmus, are small, but the number is large. No evidence 

 has yet been found of constructed nests. The eggs are carried 

 far in the excavated chambers, in the wood. The males and 

 females have wings, at one stage of their life-history, and they 

 probably swarm, although this has not been witnessed. 



Near the beach, at Colon, there is a large Coccoloba, or Sea- 

 Grape tree, the bark of which has been pierced in many places 

 by the larva of some insect, of a nature entirely different from 

 that of the Termites. In these small excavations in the bark, 

 Mr. Beaumont has found many pairs of Caloter/nes marginipennis, 

 some little families of Eutermes, and three more species of 

 Calotennes. Some of the pairs had two or three eggs, and 

 others had larvse. 



Mr. Beaumont prepared ash blocks, about one and one- 

 quarter inches square, and three inches long, making a small 

 excavation on one side. Then he transferred, from the bark of 

 the Coccoloba, several pairs of Calotennes nitirginipemiis, each 

 to a distinct block, and placed a glass slide over the excava- 

 tion, enclosing the insects. Several of the eggs so transferred 

 hatched, and some of the larvse metamorphosed to nymph^e, 

 and the latter metamorphosed to the imago. By the observa- 

 tion of these, many points in the life-history of Calotennes have 

 been obtained. 



How the Calotennes can eat hard, dry wood is better under- 

 stood from these observations. The larv^ are fed for some 



