170 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [mAT 5, 



wing by the swallows, and others were carried off, as soon as 

 they alighted, by the common ant. At 6 p.m. they stopped is- 

 suing from the cracks, and the openings were sealed, and no 

 more from this colony have since come. 



We still find the Calotermes in our coaches. People here, in 

 hearing me speak of the ravages and insatiable appetites of the 

 termites, ask if it is new, as they never before heard so much 

 complaint. They have been blind or heedless to the destruc- 

 tion they caused, for the termites were here to greet Columbus, 

 and the teredo destroyed his vessels. 



April 14th, 1889. I was in the jungle to-day, and found the 

 central part of several Nasutitermes (Eutermes) nests containing 

 the queen cell. I split one open lengthwise and took out all the 

 termites. A few days later, while searching other nests, ob- 

 tained at the same time, for Staphylinid^e, many eggs and work- 

 ers were jarred on to a plate with dirt, and then thrown into an 

 empty jar to destroy. Noticing the workers picking up the 

 eggs, I put the empty block of nest in, to see if they would use it 

 for a repository for their eggs. This was at night, and in the 

 morning, upon raising the upper portion of the nest, I found 

 every egg had been removed, cleaned, and stored on one side of 

 the queen^scell. Now, these Termites had been without food for 

 five days, — unless they had eaten their nest, — and been much dis- 

 turbed, yet at the risk of their lives they had saved the eggs 

 from destruction. 



April 22d, 1889. To-day I investigated the seat-rail, compan- 

 ion to one you sent in February. This had been jarred to get 

 out the Calotermes, and I did not expect to find many. I sawed 

 it into lengths of five inches, jarred a piece endwise into a 

 glass dish, and out flew a perfect winged one into the room; it 

 was secured. From that seat-rail — supposably empty — I got 

 about 1,500 nymphee, 14 soldiers, and 72 perfect winged ones; 

 the latter were active, and some escaped. I was particular to 

 count them from each piece, to get the proportion, and noted 

 the small number of soldiers. The winged ones are smaller and 

 shorter than the nymphae, and there is a difference in the vena- 

 tion of the wings between this species and the Nasutitermes 

 (Eutermes), and when mounted are transparent and reflect col- 

 ors under the microscope. Do you know whether Dr. Hagen 

 has any of these in his collection ? Because their habits are so re- 

 tiring it makes them seem rare. A very young queen was found 

 and has been placed in a jar with some of the wood for further 

 developments. 



April 24th, 1889. My observations to date show only two spe- 

 cies that construct long galleries, — Nasutitermes and Termes 

 minimus. The next species among the architects is Termes 



