1898-99. | Queensland Termites. 5 
I made use of a cross-cut saw of large size which bisected the 
structure and displayed the interior to advantage. Turning to 
my illustration, it may be noted that it has no external opening. 
It is all solid masonry that refuses to yield to any pressure 
less than the single steel tooth of the pick-axe. The tunnels 
may extend underground laterally for hundreds of yards from 
the central fortress; these also have no permanent openings 
to the light. Openings are made and closed up quickly 
at need, and generally at night. Openings are never made in 
the main building except to enlarge it. This also is night 
work, but the morning-dawn sometimes shows a large area 
still a skeleton, like a sponge, that sinks like pie-crust under 
the pressure of a finger, and exposes the workers to the un- 
congenial light. 
Temperature——tThe internal heat of the structure does not 
exceed that of the outside air by more than 3° or 4° Fahr. 
Workers and Soldiers—A succession of powerful strokes 
with the pick-axe breaks off a slab as large as a man cares to 
lift. The internal tunnels are exposed, and a quick glance 
shows the workers at their vocations. But only for a 
moment: before 30 seconds have elapsed the workers have 
retired, and an aggressive host of little helmeted soldiers have 
taken their place and are ready to hold the fort. 
Now with regard to these soldiers I come to a very curious 
fact. Observe them well, and it will be seen that they are 
strikingly different from the workers—so much so, that it is 
difficult to trace any homology between their anterior end and 
that of the other inhabitants of the termitary. The soldiers 
are helmeted like a medieval knight. These curiously hel- 
meted soldiers belong only, so far as I know, to the species 
I am speaking of (Plate IL, ¢ and’). Other species have 
soldiers ever ready to show fight—eg., the tree termites. 
Their soldiers, however, are not helmeted like those of the 
mound-builders, but appear to be only workers with exag- 
gerated mandibles and a cephalic shield, more developed and 
chitinised than the other workers. In any case, whatever 
may be the shape of the soldier’s head, its chief weapon of 
offence is a drop of gummy fluid, which is bestowed upon the 
enemy, to whom both the soldier’s jaws and the gum adheres. 
The juice, harmless to man, causes a small, or even large, 
