Indiana Termites 301 



badly damaged by the termites and it would have been only a matter 

 of time until this part of the house would have collapsed. 



R. virginiciis has revealed an interesting fact about the use of 

 hollow concrete blocks in building foundations. The use of such founda- 

 tions as they are now generally built lays the wooden plate and other 

 wooden construction open to termite attack as readily as if these parts 

 were in direct contact with the ground. The reason is that these insects 

 build their runways from the ground up to the plate on the hollow in- 

 sides of the blocks. Here the insects can work unmolested for it is 

 impossible to shut them off from the wood without extensive tearing 

 out and putting in either solid concrete blocks or a layer of bricks laid 

 in cement between the ground line and the plate. It is much easier to 

 do this in the process of building the foundation than after the house 

 has been damaged. 



The conditions under which R. tibialis was found indicate that if 

 it is widely distributed in Indiana it too will be a species of considerable 

 economic importance. It was found tunnelling "mother" strawberry 

 plants in an area of about one acre in a twenty acre field. Over this 

 area three years previously pea hulls had been piled and rotted and it 

 is probable that the insects had been working in this pile. The region 

 north of Poseyville where it was found was a sandy, level, almost treeless 

 area, with apparently nothing for termites to feed on except living 

 cultivated plants, fence posts and wooden buildings. 



Acknowledgement. — The identifications of all material collected were 

 verified by Dr. T. E. Snyder, Expert in Forest Entomology, United 

 States Department of Agriculture. 



