490 Records of the Indian Museum. [VoL. XI, 
Oligotoma saundersi published in 1883 (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 
pp. 628-634, pl. lvi). Lefroy published a short note on this species 
in 1910 (J.B.N.H.S., XIX, pp. 1009-1010). In 1911 Imms pub- 
lished an account of the habits and life-history of Embia major 
(Trans. Linn. Soc. London, Zool. XI, pp. 167-195, text-figs. 1-6, 
pl. xxxv i-xxXviil.) 
ISOPTERA|.' 
A brief note on the tapping noises made in unison by termites 
was published by Fedden (Proc. A.S.B. 1866, p. 19). A paper by 
Bugnion (Bull. Soc. Ent. Suisse, XII, Berne 1912, pp. 125-139, pl. 
ix) deals with the same subject. These noises were frequently heard 
last year on some trellis-work in the Indian Museum compound, 
though I failed to notice any rythmic unison in their production. 
The trellis was covered with the mud shelters of termites, and when 
approached or tapped myriads of faint clickings were clearly 
audible. ‘Ihe sound at first suggested the cracking of the mud; but 
it was to be heard in the morning before the sun fell on the trellis 
(which faced west) as well as in the evening. If, moreover, the 
mud were broken away while the clicking was in progess, termites 
were always found beneath; whereas if the disturbance causing 
the clicking were kept up for a few minutes the clicking would 
cease, and then no termites would be found. This clicking is of 
course quite different from the clicking of Capritermes, which 
appears to be produced by the combined action of the remarkable 
jaws of the soldier, and sounds like the sudden cracking of a piece 
of thin glass. The force expended by Capritermes in producing it 
often flicks the producer up into the air. 
A note on the repairing of. a damaged termite nest was 
published by Millett in 1902 (J.B.N.H.S., XIV, pp. 581-2), and one 
on strange mortality of termites among tea bushes by Green in 
1905 (J.B.N.H.S., XVI, pp. 503-4). Doflein, in his paper on 
termite truffles published in the same year (Ver. Deutschen Zool. 
Ges., XV, pp. 140-149, 2 text-figs.; translated, Spolia Zeylanica III, 
pp. 203-9), notices the food of termites. In 1906 Petch noticed the 
habits of some Ceylon termites in his paper on the fungi of 
certain termite nests (Aun. R. Bot. Gard., Peradeniya, III, 
pp. 185-270, pl. v-xxi). Green in 1907 recorded the occurrence of 
two queen termites in one royal cell (Spolia Zeylanica, IV, p. 191). 
Escherich’s ‘‘ Termitenleben aus Ceylon’’ (Jena, 1911) deals 
extensively with habits. In 1913 Assmuth described the habits 
of many species of termites in his paper on ‘‘ Wood-Destroying 
Termites of the Bombay Presidency (J.B. N.H.S., XXII, pp. 372- 
384, pl. i-v), and Petch described those of Eutermes monoceros, the 
black termite of Ceylon (Ann. R. Bot. Gard., Peradeniya, V, 
PP- 395-420, pl. vi-xiv). During the same year Green’s ‘‘ Cata- 
logue of Isoptera recorded from Ceylon ’’ (Spolia Zeylanica, IX, 
' See also Escherich, ‘‘Die Termiten’’ (Leipzig 1909); and Wasmann's 
Neue Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Termitophilen und Myrmecophilen "', Zeztschr. 
wiss. gool. CL, 1912, pp. 70-115, pl. v-vii. 
