254 B. GRASSI AND A. SANDIAS. 
the rotten phylloclades, which in fact are sometimes the first 
portions to be occupied. 
It is difficult to find a tree with any decayed portion which 
has not been attacked by Calotermes in Catania and the 
adjoining provinces, at least in the low country, for I have 
not searched at a higher elevation than Nicolosi. At Castro- 
giovanni the species appears to be entirely absent.’ 
As mentioned above, it inhabits still living plants. Should 
the plant die the Calotermites survive until it has become 
completely dry, when they perish—a fact that anyone can 
verify by examination of the vine-stocks annually turned out 
from old vineyards. If the dead trunk-does not dry up, as 
is the case in marshy situations, the insects continue to 
flourish. 
Lucas and some other writers state that they have found 
Calotermes flavicollisin buildings. I have never observed 
this at Catania, but Dr. Sandias has found flourishing colonies 
at Trapani in the woodwork of verandahs, doors and stair- 
ways, &c., ten years old; probably the wood harboured the 
insects before being worked up for domestic purposes. It 
should be observed that the climate of Trapani is very damp, 
so that wood probably dries less there than at Catania.? 
In order that a plant may harbour Calotermes, it must 
(necessarily), as I have stated, exhibit some amount of decay, 
because such decayed portions alone are occupied. To proceed 
to details, Calotermes never invades the healthy parts, but 
encroaches at most on their boundaries. If a partly decayed 
vine-stock is infested, it is usually easy to make out that the 
healthy tissues are respected; yet should they contain an 
internal channel of decay barely larger than the body of a 
Calotermite, the insects can enter and excavate a gallery, which 
will then present but a very thin lining of decayed matter, and 
1 [In a foot-note at the end of the original work the authors state that, since 
it was printed, Signor Giuseppe Corona has discovered the species at Castro- 
giovanni. | 
2 The Marchese Doria informs me that he has confirmed Dr. Sandias’s 
observation at Genoa, although the climate there is certainly not moister than 
that of Catania. 
