dod int sae tA 
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on the Bionomics of Southern Nigerian Insects. 417 
it up. They had a curious habit too of jumping in a 
manner recalling some Ponerinae. Their jump only carried 
them half an inch to an inch away, but it was most char- 
acteristic and was not a feature of the workers. These 
latter too have normal symmetrical jaws. I could not 
detect any intermediate forms and the soldiers were 
curiously few in number and isolated. [Believing that 
only one species was present Farquharson assumed that 
the soldiers of the other two were workers.] Though I 
can send you no sexual forms, perhaps the species is well 
and easily recognised by its odd soldiers. 
The species of Termite is one that fastens on to large 
bush stumps and gradually converts them into a carton 
and mud heap, mainly carton, unlike 7’. bellicosus our 
commonest form whose hill is entirely of clay. 
2. A Swarm of winged Termes bellicosus Smeathm. 
Sept. 18, 1917.—Termites are the same [as Camponotus 
maculatus, in the sexual forms being phototropic, the 
others lucifugous : pp. 424-25]. The flying stage of 7’. belli- 
cosus, which I believe is our commonest one (it is preyed 
on by Megaponera), is a bigger nuisance than all others 
and is all the worse from being more frequent. Not long 
ago a swarm of these invaded my place. They soon drop 
their wings, and in that de-alate condition are much relished 
as an article of food (cooked) by the Yorubas. I find a 
hurricane lamp placed in a basin of water a useful trap. 
After dinner I went out to see the “ catch,” and found 
the night watchman (this was at Ibadan) eagerly sweeping 
up hundreds of them that had alighted round his lamp. 
He plunged handfuls of them into a bucket of water to 
keep them from wandering off, and appeared thoroughly 
well pleased over this manifestation of the bounty of 
Providence. A little native cat of mine was also very 
busy eating those that escaped the watchman. I watched 
“William,” the cat, with amusement at first and then 
with closer interest as he started hopping round in evident 
trouble, something obviously having bitten him. A 
serious-looking and somewhat inflated frog (he also happily 
gorged) was also moving out of the way. I went down 
the verandah stairs to investigate, and found that the 
Termite winged forms were coming from numerous innocent- 
looking small holes in my quite level compound. There 
was no hill, and their presence there was a great surprise 
to me, But the source of “ William’s” trouble and of 
