92 Mr. T. S. Savage on the Termitidse of West Africa. 



X. — Observations on the species of Termitida3 of West Africa, 

 described by Smeathman as Termes bellicosus, and by Linnaus 

 as T. fatalis. By T. S. Savage *. 



Having 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 oeconomy ; 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., E.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 insect "ate down their 

 dwellings ;^' and, secondly, from the superiority of the clay of 

 which they are constructed, which is used for building purposes. 

 At no point, however, between CapeVcrd 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. 



