Reports to the Foreign Office. 159 



T. heJ/icosus \ I^o'ig'^1^'' I^^rf^i'-. KordofMU, 

 I Sennaar, and Abyssinia. 

 T. destructnr, Kordofan. 

 IT. viarum 

 T. helUcosus 

 T. destructor 

 2\ mordax \ 

 T atrox I ^^^^'^'^ Leone and Gambia. 



7\ arhorum 

 T. trinervius 

 T. lateralis I 

 T.fatale, Arabia. 



Damage caused by Teraiites. 



Tlie usual way of working is to destroy wood-work of all kinds. In 

 all instances Termites work in the dark ; they enter wood-work from the 

 ground, working up inside the wood from where the poles, supports and 

 timbers are placed in the soil. Furniture, books and papers are attacked 

 and destroyed, the wood-work being completely hollowed out, nothing 

 but a thin papery outer shell left, which naturally can stand no pressure 

 and so, soon collapses. 



Damage to living substances and crops is by no means unusual. The 

 American T. fiavipes has been recorded destroying turnip roots, by 

 gradually eating out the interior.* In Florida they damage living trees 

 by eating away the bark about the collar and root, but growing wood is 

 only attacked by them under exceptional circumstances when there is no 

 dead wood or when they wish to escape from the heated soil.f This 

 species also attacks potatoes growing in rich soil or where there is a 

 considerable quantity of decaying vegetable matter. The insects form 

 scars or pits covering the surface, often over-hung by the dead and dying 

 skin. 



Termes fatih is very destructive to trees in Arabia.^ In Ceylon tea 

 and coffee plants are attacked by them, the stems being gnawed through 

 just below the ground, 



Termes australis, according to French (" Handbook of Injurious Insects 

 of Victoria," pp. 11, 1?>7, 1893), attacks vines and fruit trees in Victoria. 

 ],)amage to living plants is therefore not unusual. 



A'abieties of Nests {Termitaria). 



Termites or White Ants form variously-shaped nests. The ways of 

 destroying Termites differ according to the type of Termitaria. The 

 following types of nests seem to occur (1) large mound-nests, often six to 

 ten feet high {T. beUicosus), (2) small dome-shaped nests over tree stumps, 

 seldom more than two feet high {Eutermes sp.), (;>) Arboreal nests, on 

 live and dead trees, approached by a covered tunnel up the tree trunk 

 (E/ftermes arhorum and Eutermes sp.), (4) Small round nests in the soil 

 mentioned by Major Count Gleichen in his letter of inquiry (sp. ?). 



* " Insect Life," II. 283. t " Insect Life," I. 341. 



X "History of Arabia, Ancient and Modern," A. Crichton, 1833. 



