THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



however, considers Smeathman to have been mistaken in attributing to this form 

 wood-destroying properties which he correlates with a smaller species more nearly 

 resembling, if not identical with, Eutermes arboreum. 



The second form of White Ant hills or termitaria described by Smeathman is 

 referred to by him as being the joint work of two species of Termites, upon which 

 Dr. Solander had conferred the respective titles of Termes mordax and T. atrox. In 

 each instance the nest consists of perpendicular cylindrical columns about three quarters 

 of a yard high, consisting of very firmly consolidated black brown earth or clay and 

 surmounted by an overlapping conical roof of the same material, which imparts to 

 them an aspect comparable to that of gigantic mushrooms. The substance of these 

 termitaria is described as being of such rigid consistence that the whole structure can 

 be more easily uprooted from its earth foundation than fractured across the centre 

 of the cylindrical column. It was further observed of examples that had become thus 

 accidentally overturned, that the inhabitants commenced the construction of a new 

 column, vertically and at right angles from the prostrate one. The internal structure of 

 these so-called turret-nests are described by Smeathman as presenting none of the system- 

 atic complexity possessed by the hillocks of Termes bellicosus, consisting entirely of 

 innumerable cells of irregular shape, each of which possessed two or more entrances 

 by which it communicated with its neighbours. After one of these turret-nests is 

 finished, it is not further altered or enlarged, but another column is constructed 

 within a few inches of the first. A group of half-a-dozen or more of these mushroom- 

 like termitaria is described as being often seen at the foot of the trees in the thick 

 woods. 



The fourth variety of West African nest-constructing Termites, figured and 

 described by Smeathman, is distinguished by the title of Termes arboreum. As its 

 name implies, it builds its nest on the arms or stems of trees, sometimes at the 

 considerable height of seventy or eighty feet from the ground. This nest or termitarium 

 is usually spherical or oval in shape, and may be as large as a sugar cask. The 

 substance out of which it is composed differs from that of the hillock and turret- 

 shaped varieties. It consists, in place of clay, of minute particles of wood, combined 

 with the gums and juices of trees, and built up into innumerable little cells of 

 irregular shape and size. These nests are described as being so compact that there 

 is no detaching them, except by cutting them in pieces or sawing off the branch upon 

 which they are built, and to which, indeed, they are so firmly united that they will even 

 resist the force of the tornadoes to which they are not unfrequently exposed, so long 



