of London " in 1850. In this were described several termites, anaong other 

 insects, that he obtained from the Tertiary beds at Oenigen and Rudoboj. 

 Four years later Dr. Hagen published a report in Germany, describing 

 the fossil termites of the same locality, and jjointed out that the climate 

 of Europe rr\ust have been very much warmer at that period than under 

 existing conditions to have supported such an abundance of insect life, 

 for out of the sixty white ants alone, a third of them were known from 

 fossils. Between 1855-60, Hagen brought out his "Monograph of the 

 Termitidoe," in which he described all the species known to him or 

 described up to that date ; this was published in three parts in a German 

 journal called the Linncea Entomologica. 



In 1861, Hagen recorded the discovery of three species in some Sicilian 

 amber in the Oxford Museum. In 1878 Sterzel described a fossil species 

 under the name of Mixotermes lugaueiisis, from the carboniferous strata 

 of Lagau. In America, in 1883, Scudder recorded a number of new forms 

 from the Florissant Tertiaries in his paper entitled " Fossil White Ants 

 of Colorado." In this he described six new species, and gave a general 

 account of fossil termites from other places. 



In Brongniart's " Recherche pour servu a I'Histoire des Insects Fos- 

 siles," published in France in 1893, other fossil species are recorded. 



Distribution generally. 



Though England and the northern latitudes of Europe are free from 

 termites, several instances have been recorded of their accidental intro- 

 duction, chiefly by means of timber from tropical countries. McLachlan 

 exhibited specimens, at a meeting of the Entomological Society in 1874, of 

 a colony that had been discovered in the Palm House of the Royal Gardens 

 at Kew, where they were kept under observation for some time before they 

 were destroyed. 



Three species are recorded from southern Europe, chiefly ranging along 

 the Mediterranean sea-board, though one has been found as far north as 

 Odessa, where it did a considerable amount of damage. Terines lucifugus 

 is said to be an indigenous species, and has been well known in France 

 from a very early date. In 1853 it appeared as a regular plague in 

 Rochelle, where, not content with damaging woodwork, it found its way 

 into the city archives, where it destroyed many valuable State documents. 

 This species is found in all the southern provinces of France, and has 

 been recorded from all southern Europe, Sicily, Sardinia, Morea, Turkey, 

 Cyprus, Egypt, and Madeira. This is the species that has been mono- 

 graphed by Professor Grassi and Dr. Sandias, who studied them in 

 Catania, Italy. 



The second species, Termes flavicoUis, originally a native of northern 

 Africa, common in Barbary and Algeria, has been introduced into or has 

 spread round the European coast, and is now found in most of the locali- 

 ties where the previous species exists. 



