166 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [mAY 5, 



queen has beeu laying eggs for four hours under my observa- 

 tion, and averaged about eight per minute, one at a time, in rapid 

 succession; then again slower, with periods of a few moments* 

 rest. It is interesting to see the eggs, under the microscope, 

 pulsating before the embryo ant can be defined. To-day I had 

 photographed the largest Nasutitermes (Eutermes) nest yet 

 seen by me; it was ten feet high, and in the corner of a shed. 

 It will be a treat to break it up and see the inside. 



The mud nest at Panama has disappeared, also the telegraph- 

 pole. Query: Which went first ? There is a new pole about a 

 rod distant. A few miles north of Panama I found another 

 conical mud nest, about three feet high and three feet in di- 

 ameter at the base, — without doubt the same species as the former. 



The stairs leading to the church-tower are built principally 

 of Spanish cedar, with some pine. The ants eat the latter close 

 to the former without touching it in a single instance, nor has 

 the Spanish cedar decayed at all. I enclose a fine piece of 

 veneer by the master-worker Nasutitermes (Eutermes); it is 

 the remains of the upper side of a lime-barrel head, — the lower 

 side was the same, — also a piece of stave from the same barrel. 



February 3d, 1889. Last week I had to go across the bay to 

 '' Kenney^s Blutf Waterworks," and went into the mountain, 

 and in a short time found a termites nest similar to the frag- 

 ment sent to you ; it is the only kind that is not a Nasuti- 

 termes (Eutermes), brownish in color, with smaller septa. I 

 was fortunate in securing the queen and the nicely constructed 

 cell, — not a " cavity left among the septa,'' as one writer says, 

 but a roomy cell tiiat you will be delighted to see. The queen 

 resembles those of the Nasutitermes (Eutermes) in general 

 appearance, the abdomen of finer texture, head and thorax 

 smaller in proportion. Only one soldier was captured, but 

 many workers and immature winged ones. 



This morning, taking the advice of Solomon to go to the 

 ants and consider their ways, I opened two Nasutitermes (Eu- 

 termes) nests, made observations, and took a queen from each. 

 In the centre of one nest a twig of a dead shrub had been incor- 

 porated, about one-half inch in diameter ; the centre had been 

 eaten to the thin bark, and here was the queen fitted nicely in 

 her bark house. 



This nest, — illustrated in February number M. Journal, — I 

 found on the beach this morning, built on the dead trunk of a 

 small tree, about two inches in diameter and about eighteen inches 

 above the ground. The trunk was honeycombed by the ants, 

 and I broke it off close to the ground and put it into my six-by- 

 nine glass jar, two-thirds full of moist soil around the trunk, 

 with two white-ash braces, and all standing in a wash-bowl 



