330 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 



pression has been deepened by the fact that in several instances where 

 the forests have been cleared away the mounds of the white ants 

 appear to be quite as abundant as they are in the old clearings or 

 on the open campos. 



Further support is given this theory by Maximilien, Prince de 

 Wied-Neuwied, who, in speaking of the white ants' nests near Con- 

 quista, in the southwestern part of the State of Bahia, says that they 

 are extremely abundant in covered and wooded places. 1 



RELATIONS TO VEGETATION. 



Compared with the true ants, the white ants are harmless. At least 

 they do not attack crops and animals or render certain localities unin- 

 habitable. The harm they do to agriculture is confined to the mere 

 encumbrance of the ground by their big, hard, rock-like nests. They 

 do, however, destroy wood used in the construction of fences, houses, 

 bridges, and furniture, and they sometimes burrow into books and 

 papers that are left to stand for a long time undisturbed. 



I quote below some remarks of other writers in regard to the 

 destruction of timbers by termites, but I must add that I am disposed 

 to question the rate at which these insects are said to destroy wood. 

 My own observations lead me to conclude that the idea expressed by 

 Drummond and others that a piece of furniture may be destroyed in 

 a night is simply a picturesque way of putting it. In the first place, 

 there are certain kinds of wood (in Brazil at least) that the termites 

 do not attack at all. I am unable to say just now what kinds they 

 are, but it is a matter of common information among Brazilian 

 carpenters and cabinetmakers. 



In the second place, the method of discovery of their destructive 

 work frequently leaves an erroneous impression. In accordance with 

 their general habit of keeping away from the light, termites attack a 

 piece of wood that forms a part of a building from within. Their 

 work does not appear at the surface at all, and it may be carried on 

 for months, or even for years, without its being discovered. But 

 some day a window sill crushes in, a doorpost is shattered by a 

 trifling blow, or a rafter gives way without its ever having been sus- 

 pected that they were being attacked by the cupim. The suddenness 

 of the discovery not unnaturally leads to the unwarranted inference 

 that all this work was done during the preceding night. 



It should be noted that although the white ants are abundant in 

 forests, I am not aware that they ever attack the living trees. They 

 appear to eat only the dead trunks or dead limbs or bark. Many of 

 them build their nests on the trees. Nests found high up on tree 

 trunks are always, so far as I have observed, made of woody matter 



i Voyage an BnSsil, vol. 3, p. 129. Paris, 1822. 



