1890.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 171 



prmlongus, but they try to cover their work, leaving a space behind 

 the plaster about three-sixteenths of an inch. The 2'ermes mui- 

 imus often construct as you illustrate, but frequently like the 

 Nasutitermes. I have five Staphylinidae from the last Nasuti- 

 ternies nest, and also two of the little white guests; these seem 

 to be the only strangers met with in the central part of these 

 nests. 



From further observations on the Calotermes marginipennis, 

 I assure you and Dr. Hagen beyond doubt that the imago 

 does have a lobe between its claws, by which it can run up and 

 down a window-pane or the vertical sides of the glass jar in which 

 my first specimens were with difficulty placed. 



This power, that other species do not possess, reminded me 

 that Dr. Hagen is recorded as searching for it, but did not find 

 it, and that you bad found the rudiments of a lobe in a nympha. 

 The Doctor's specimens may have been imperfect, for a side 

 view of the foot shows tbe lobe or sucking disc. 



Other results of observations of this species are that they have 

 no workers, that the nymph^e while young have no visible signs 

 of eyes, wings, or lobes between the claws, therefore they can- 

 not see, fly, or crawl on slippery surfaces, nor have they any use 

 for these organs at this stage of life. 



The nympha? at first are like grubs, fat, sluggish, and repul- 

 sive to theeye; they gradually change, while performing destruc- 

 tive work, to perfect insects, — black eyes, graceful bodies, irides- 

 cent wings, lobed feet, and beautiful to the eye. Imagine, if 

 you can, " the swarming" of thousands of these Calotermes mar- 

 ginijJennis issuing forth from the seat of a passenger-coach in 

 motion, on any of the trunk lines in the vicinity of New York! 

 I wish you would show Mr. Adams, the Boston tS: Albany's 

 car-builder, the work of these pests in my coaches, for in spite 

 of all lean do it seems impossible to get rid of them. 



May 2d, 1889, I am now observing the Calotermes margini- 

 pennis, and find tliem as interesting as the other species, while 

 their habits are different. In a first-class coach in the shop for 

 repairs, the Calotermes are at work in two places, and the seat- 

 rail is a fine specimen of their carving. 



I observed the cutting and masticating process of the jaws. 

 The toothed or anterior portion of mandible is used in cutting 

 and tearing the fibres of wood, and the posterior is for grinding 

 and masticating it. To observe this I made a calotermitarium 

 which has answered the purpose, by placing a piece of seat-rail 

 one and one-half inclies long, with a pocket in which were a 

 few Calotermes marginipennis. Then with a penknife I drilled 

 a hole endwise in the block about one-quarter of an inch dia- 



