n 



white ant nests beneath the trees. Ridley then generalized as follows : 

 " Such action is what appears to be generally intended when it is 

 said that a tree is killed by termites, the real cause, being perhaps 

 obscure, is overlooked, and the termites who come to remove the dead 

 tissue are credited with the original injury." 



Fi-om this article it appears that the typical Termes gestroi 

 habit of attacking live ti'ees was not then known. It follows that 

 in 1895 the insect was not a pest of major importance or such a sound 

 observer as Ridley could not have failed to have noted this fact. 



It is unlikely that any of the termites observed by Ridley in 

 Singapore up to this time were Termes gestroi, and he was probably 

 quite correct in ascribing these particular attacks to diseased 

 conditions. But I think it very likely that his generalization based 

 upon observations of other species was subsequently taken by 

 planters to apply to Termes gestroi, and developed into the 

 pernicious idea that the trees lost through white ants would have 

 died anyway, or at best would have been of little use. This 

 fallacious theory of pre-disease has continued almost, if not quite, 

 down to the present. 



In 1897, the Linnaean Society published Haviland's " Observa- 

 tions on Termites, with descriptions of New Species." This is the 

 standard scientific work on Malayan termites. Twenty species, 

 including Termes gestroi, were described from British Malaya and a 

 further considerable number from the Islands, but they were not 

 treated from the economic side. Termes gestroi, however, received 

 considerable attention because " the species is one which deliberately 

 attacks and destroys live trees." The soldier, upon which classifica- 

 tion is based, was described in detail, and shorter descriptions given 

 of the workers and nymphs — that is, the winged individuals which 

 develop into kings and queens. Unfortunately, Haviland did not 

 obtain the adult king or queen, and from his failure to find them 

 came to the conclusion that " the same colony often possesses 

 several nests, only one of which is inhabited by fertile individuals 

 whose eggs and young are carried to the other nests." My own 

 experience does not bear out the whole of this. Subsidiaiy nests are 

 made by Termes gestroi, in its feeding places but I have never seen 

 eggs in these. Always the parent nest alone contains the eggs, 

 and every nest cotitaining eggs contains also the queen. Of the 

 habits of Termes gestroi, Haviland wrote : " This species is 

 remarkable for its habit of killing live trees. It encases the trunk 

 for a distance of eight feet from the ground, with a thick crust 

 of earth. Under cover of this crust it eats througli weak spots 

 in tlie tree to the heart of the wood, which it excavates, forming 

 there a kind of nest built of wood fibre." 



Next in chronological order is a further article by Ridley in 

 May, 1900. A brief description of the soldier is followed by an 



