CONSTITUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF TERMITES. 257 
choice of evening or night, the interval after a shower or a wet 
day as a swarming-time (Casati).! 
The nest of the Sicilian Calotermes resembles those of its 
congeners, which show, as a rule, very little architectural 
skill. Strictly speaking, they do not build any nest, but con- 
tent themselves with burrows excavated in wood and never 
quitted. These burrows vary very much in dimensions, and 
the same gallery may be narrow in one part and very wide in 
others. In one of the enlargements, towards the heart of the 
nest, the royal couple, with a numerous surrounding, is usually 
to be found. There is never a true royal chamber, such as 
has been described for many other species. The galleries are 
very variable in direction, but the widest and longest are 
generally subparallel with the long axis of the stem. A large 
number of transverse passages is commonly found, and these 
are often too narrow to allow room for more than a single 
individual at a time. According to Fritz Miller,? the burrows 
of Calotermes possess an inner lining of excrement. This 
appears at first sight really to be the case when they are exca- 
vated in rotten and somewhat softened wood. But if they 
are examined in cork, or in wood which, though dead, is still 
hard, the absence of such a lining is easily established, and 
this fact once determined, one can satisfy oneself that burrows 
made in damp wood are also unlined. 
In common with other termites, Calotermes avoids the 
outer layers of the cortex (as may be readily observed in vine- 
stocks), and thus protects the nest from the direct action of 
the atmosphere or infiltration of water. 
As previously stated, the colony provides for an increase in 
numbers by penetrating deeper into the wood. This penetra- 
tion is also determined by the fact that the superficial wood 
becomes too dry. The abandoned portion becomes then com- 
monly occupied by ants, the pitiless enemies of Calotermes. 
The termitarium is separated from the ant-burrows, or from 
openings caused by wind-cracks or axe-wounds by means of 
1 (‘Ten Years in Equatorial Africa,’ i, p. 166.] 
2 (‘Jen. Zeitschr.,’ vii, p. 343.] 
