92 Mr.T.S. Savage on the Termitide of West Africa. 
X.— Observations on the species of Termitidee of West Africa, 
described by Smeathman as Termes bellicosus, and by Linneus 
as T. fatalis. By T. 8S. Savace*. 
Havine read a condensed account and many extracts from 
the communication of Dr. Smeathman to the Royal Society 
of London on the insect in question, it seemed to me that no 
room was left for the discovery of additional facts. But, resi- 
ding in the locality of the Termes, I felt a desire to know per- 
sonally their ceconomy ; first, from motives of interest in the 
general subject of natural history; and secondly, in order to 
discover some way of preventing their supposed attacks on our 
buildings. 
As I proceeded, I noticed some mistakes made by Dr. Smeath- 
man or his many copiers, which induced me to record my own 
observations. Of these the following is a summary. 
I would here remark, that I have never seen the original nor 
entire publication of Dr. Smeathman’s paper; but what I have 
seen, is sufficient to show that he was an acute observer, a 
man of indomitable perseverance and accurate to a remarkable 
degree. The best account that I have read of his paper is that 
of Edward Newman, Esq., F'.R.S., in his ‘ Familiar Introduction 
to the History of Insects.’ It is free from the marks of a pru- 
rient imagination, and indicates more of a desire to relate the 
simple truth in the history of the insect than any that I have 
seen. The figures, however, which stand at the head of his 
account are decidedly bad. 
The first thing that strikes a visitor who is familiar with 
Adamson’s and Smeathman’s observations, when he arrives on 
the coast of Africa, is the great sparseness of the Termites’ hills. 
Instead of “ acres so thickly covered as to appear like the huts of 
native settlements,” his eye may wander over acres without seeing 
one ; one cause of this sparseness may have arisen to some extent 
from the introduction of civilization. The visitor usually lands 
first at the European or American settlements, where the hills in 
their immediate vicinity are mostly destroyed. This has been 
done, first, from the notion that the msect “ate down their 
dwellings ;” and, secondly, from the superiority of the clay of 
which they are constructed, which is ased for building purposes. 
At no point, however, between Cape Verd and the Gaboon river, 
will the stranger remark them for their numbers. 
They more frequently occur on plane and flat lands; making 
their appearance especially soon after the lands have been cleared 
for planting, at which time trees are left girdled and prostrate to 
decay. 
* From the Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci. of Philadelphia, vol. iv. No. 11. 
