168 ' TRANSACTIONS OF THB [MAY 5^ 



ing in his trunk. He discovered them first by the little round 

 pellets of refuse that they pushed up as they were working- 

 downward through the cover of his trunk. He described them 

 as white, and some of them had short wings. If this is true, it 

 is easy to account for their finding a home in our coaches, as 

 you suggested. He knows the Nasutitermes (Euternies) by 

 their nests and galleries, but has not observed them in Peru or 

 the high lands of Mexico. This confirms a conclusion that their 

 habitat is governed by altitude as well as latitude. 



March 33d, 1889. Another passenger-coach has come to the 

 shop for repairs ; end sill decayed, door and window posts of 

 one end eaten by the Calotermes marginipennis, one tenon eaten 

 off entirely. Took out the whole end of the car and found 

 some nymphge among them. Yesterday the carpenters tore 

 down a part of balcony considered unsafe in the rear of super- 

 intendent's house and near the bath-room, and found a Nasuti- 

 termes (Eutermes) nest between the floor timbers of the second 

 story. This explains the work of these ants on the ash ceiling 

 of the bath-room. 



There is a part of a decayed log in our lumber-yard that is in 

 possession of the vaulting termites ; it also contains eggs and 

 nympha3, but have not yet found a queen. My clerk says that 

 he visited the photographed nest and found the ants rebuild- 

 ing, having covered the top, on which was poured carbolic 

 acid. 



April 2d, 1889. I am now making observations of the Termes 

 prcelongus, Beaumont (jumpers), and have found a branch nest 

 of this species in the old stump, but think there is more of it. 

 I have obtained some winged jumpers just able to fly ; they 

 would no doubt be able to swarm next month. They are much 

 smaller than the winged Nasutitermes (Eutermes) or Termes tes- 

 taceus. In breaking the nest in the stump, in pursuit of the 

 queen, I found thousands of young workers, but very few sol- 

 diers ; many white nymphge with black eyes. Fresh eggs were 

 numerous, but no queen visible. I think she will be smaller than 

 the Nasutitermes (Eutermes), and, from the trouble and labor 

 in search of her to date, she ought to have the financial value of 

 an eagle. To verify my conjectures in regard to the feeding of 

 the young of this species, I placed fragments of the nest in a 

 clean jar 6x9, without any soil, the bottom of the jar being 

 slightly convex. 



The baby termites travelling about the ruptured nest dropped 

 from above to the bottom of the slippery jar, and gravitated to 

 the lower edge in large numbers, and were unable to climb to 

 the nest, which rested on the centre of the jar ; so the little 

 mites huddled together, and the workers came down to them, and 



