66 



ENTOMOLOGT. 



The white ants top the Platypterous series; they live, 

 like ants, in stumps and fallen trees, and do much harm, 

 especially in the tropics, by undermining the sills of houses, 

 and destroying furniture, books, etc. Their colonies are 

 very large and populous. 



In our Termes flavipes there are, besides males and 

 females, workers and soldiers; the workers being white, 

 small, ant-like, and wingless, with small round heads, while 

 the soldiers have large square heads, with long jaws; the 

 pupae are active. In Brazil a species of white ant is differ- 

 entiated into six different sets of individuals: viz., winged 

 and wingless females; winged and wingless males; workers 

 and soldiers. A wingless male and female may, on the 

 death of a normal winged male and female, replace them in 

 the colony. A male or king was found by Miiller living 

 with thirty-one complemental females. 



Sitb-urder 1. Mallophaga. — The bird-lice live usually as 



parasites under the feathers of 

 birds, eating the feathers; but the 

 species of two genera (Tricho- 

 dectes and Gyropus) live on mam- 

 mals, eating the young hairs, and 

 sometimes clots of blood. They 

 differ from lice in having jaws 

 adapted for biting. They can be 

 mounted in balsam as transparent 

 objects for the microscope. 



Family Philopteridae. — With fila- 

 mentous 3- or 5- jointed antennae, but no 

 palps. Trichodqctes canis DeGeer, para- 



Fig. 50.— Goniocotes of domestic s i lie on dogs; (hmiocotes burnettii Pack. 

 foxvl - on the domestic fowl. 



Family Liotheidae. — With club-shaped 4- jointed antennae and palps. 

 Gyropus porcelli Shrank, on the porpoise; Q. ovalis, on the Guinea 

 pig; in the U. S., Menopon pallidum Kitsch, on fowls. 



Sub-order 2. Corrodentia. 

 mal, winged forms. 



-This group includes the nor- 



