818 No. 50, SECOND SERIES, REVISED EDITION. Issued January 27, 1908. 
am ited States Department of Agriculture, 
BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY, 
L. O. HOWARD, Entomologist and Chief of Bureau. 
THE WHITE ANT. 
(Termes flavipes Koll.). 
By C. L. MarR.art, 
Entomologist and Acting Chief in Absence of Chief. 
No insect occurring in houses is capable of doing greater damage than 
the one under consideration. Its injuries are often hidden until the 
damage is beyond repair, and as it affects the integrity of the building 
itself as well as its contents, the importance of the insect becomes very 
evident. Fortunately it is not often present in the North in houses, 

Fie. 1.—Termes flavipes: a, Adult male; b, terminal abdominal segments of same from below; 
c, same of female; d, male, side view, somewhat inflated by treatment with ammonia; e, abdo- 
men of female, side view; f, tarsus, showing joints and claw; a, d, e, enlarged; b,c, f, greatly 
enlarged (original). 
but as the Tropics are approached the injuries from it in dwellings or 
other structures of wood are of common experience and often of the 
most serious nature, causing the sudden crumbling of bridges and 
wharves and settling of floors or buildings. 
The term “ white ant,’’ by which this insect is universally known, is 
entirely inappropriate in so far as it indicates any relationship with the 
true ants. Strictly speaking, the white ant is not an ant, but a neurop- 
teroid insect belonging to the order Isoptera and is allied to the book 
lice and stone flies. The only analogy with ants is in superficial resem- 
blance and in the social habits of the two groups, in which great simi- 
larity exists. The popular acquaintance with the termite or white ant 
is mainly derived from witnessing its nuptial spring flight, when the 
small brown, ant-like creatures with long glistening white wings emerge 
from cracks in the ground or from crevices in buildings, swarming out 
sometimes in enormous numbers, so that they may often be swept up 
“e 
. 20 
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