178 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [mAY 5, 



No. 22 contains two more kinds of ant guests from the same 

 nest, three dark ones and one lighter in color ; the former may 

 prove to be the imago of the white guests, which you say are 

 nymphae. Please send some of these to Capt. Casey. 



No. 20 contains five Staphylinidai and a number of white guests. 

 I hope these will reach you, as I was at some pains and trouble 

 to get them and may not be able to replace them. 



No. 23 are not from the Frijoles nest; I retain those Staphy- 

 linidae here. No. 13, T. iestaceus imago; No. 17, Nasutitermes 

 (Eutermes) imago; No. 35, imago, workers, nymphae, and a 

 virgin queen from Corozal mud nest, and forty eggs from 

 the same. This is a fine collection. The long vial is a worker 

 Nasutitermes from my termitarium that is covered with para- 

 sites; they are on its body, legs, and antennae. 



Like you, I have also found a male C. marginipeniiis; its 

 color is different, like old gold, and the thorax of different form 

 and about seven mm. in length. It was found with a queen in 

 the dining-table from Panama. 



The largest number of eggs C. marginipejiiiis queens laid 

 under observation has been three; the first one laid is cared for 

 by the queen like a hen with one chicken. I am anxious to see 

 signs of life in the egg, and when I take it and put it under the 

 microscope the queen soon misses it and leaves her cell to hunt 

 for it. 



June 23d, 1889. I have a new " ne plus ultra" calotermita- 

 rium, — an ash block three inches long, one and one-half wide, and 

 one deep. A microscopic glass disc is fitted on the upper surface 

 in a groove ; under this is an excavation of three-quarters of an 

 inch in imitation of the natural pocket this termite makes. I 

 have six of these blocks numbered and contents noted. One has 

 queens, nymphse, males, soldiers, and larvae ; another, fresh-laid 

 ova ; a third, nymphae that have shed the skin and emerged to 

 beautiful imago. Two metamorphoses occurred last night, and 

 I have mounted the skins. These old skins crack lengthwise of 

 the abdomen; then the white imago backs out, leaving a perfect 

 shell of mandibles, maxillge, palpae, legs and claws with indistinct 

 lobes. One of the mounts shows all this, even to the cutting 

 edge of the mandible. The young larvae follow the nymphae and 

 take their pap from the extremity of the abdomen. No fungus 

 in this dry wood, and the baby termites feed the same as the 

 older ones do. 



Rev. Mr. Geddes brought me some specimens this week from 

 Jamaica of C. margmipennis, with this statement : These 

 specimens were taken from a white maple board used for slicing 

 bread about three years. He noticed a few pellets, and upon 



