NOTES ON TERMITES FROM CEYLON. 115 



But this was not always the case. Sometimes, when one came 

 upon a corpse, it simply went out of its way, never to return, 

 and it even seemed to me^in one or two cases — that this 

 place was afterwards avoided by the marching column, but 

 this might be a mere coincidence. Once I saw the dead body 

 lifted and carried off by a worker, just as others carry their 

 morsels of lichen. Another time a few workers tried to lift 

 up their dead comrade, but as it had stuck to the bark they 

 were unable to move, and soon left it. But I have never seen 

 a dead termite torn up, limb by limb, and devoured. The 

 Teturn of the foraging parties is not always finished in the 

 early morning. I have seen them marching homewards until 

 after 12.30 p.m. 



Once my coolies brought me a nest of monoceros in a hollow 

 tree stem, which they opened and searched for the queen, 

 without finding her. Some two hours later I observed that 

 the queen had emerged from beneath the debris of the nest 

 and had hidden herself under a box. When this was lifted 

 she began to move, and crawled up the vertical post of the 

 house for a foot or so. In this she was supported, as it seemed, 

 by the workers who surrounded her, especially at the posterior 

 extremity, as if they were pushing her up. She could move 

 horizontally, at a comparatively rapid pace, without any 

 assistance. 



Galleries on Roads. 



Though galleries ramifying like roots in different directions 

 from a central point are frequently seen on the surface of roads 

 and have been figured both by Doflein and Escherich, there is 

 no record of the species of termites that construct these 

 galleries, or what purpose they serve. Strangely enough, 

 Escherich says that he has never been able to find any termites 

 in these galleries. During a few days' observation I found in 

 no less than fifteen cases workers (and occasionally soldiers) of 

 T. obscuriceps, and on two other occasions of T-. redemanni. 



As a rule, only a few individuals were to be found in the 

 galleries during the morning, and they were almost deserted 



