Mr. T. S. Savage on the Termitidse of West Africa. 101 



the main passages in the walls down to the basement. These 

 several passages were smooth, as if by being well-worn by con- 

 stant tread, and it undoubtedly is through them that their food 

 is brought from below to the " magazines/' The first fragment 

 of the hill exposed numerous apparent perforations, from the 

 size of a shot to that of a dollar, which were increased by every 

 stroke ; these were the difierent passages, running in every direc- 

 tion and anastomosing with each other, keeping up a communi- 

 cation throughout the domicile. 



The walls seemed to be about 12 inches thick, and contained 

 numerous cavities or cells of various sizes and shapes, with young 

 in difierent stages of growth, extremely white and delicate. They 

 communicated with each other and with the main passages. The 

 number of young contained in them varied from twelve to twenty. 

 When several were found in one cell, they were regularly and 

 closely packed, with their heads converging towards the bottom. 

 The first idea which this arrangement presented to my mind, was 

 that of pigs in an autumnal night, stowed in the angle of a '^ Vir- 

 ginia fence." 



Having beaten away the wall of the hill, a layer of light brown 

 spongy substance was seen, its structure irregularly cellular and 

 inclosed in red moist clay of corresponding form ; the ^' nurseries'' 

 of Smeathman, The cells contained young of difierent sizes ; on 

 the surface were visible numerous scattered minute white glo- 

 bular bodies, probably fungi. Messrs. Kirby and Spence sup- 

 pose them to belong to the genus Mucor. But the Mucorini 

 are generated from decayed animal and stercoraceous matter. 

 Without a microscopic examination, they seem to me to be as- 

 signed more naturally to the Trichocisti, perhaps Trichia, the pin- 

 head fungi, which are known to spring from decayed vegetable 

 substance. It is highly probable that the material of which these 

 nurseries are made is at base vegetable matter. Their extent, 

 as thus observed, is from the base to two-thirds the height of 

 the sides of the hill. Centrally to these, and lying immediately 

 under the floor of the " dome," was a series of cellular work, en- 

 tirely of clay, filled with a chestnut-brown substance, very moist, 

 having the appearance of rasped or gnawed wood, and other 

 vegetable matter. These are Smeathman's '' magazines " and 

 "food," which, with the nurseries, constitute almost two -thirds 

 of the contents of the structure. 



Throughout the nurseries were found young in different stages 

 of growth : those in the external cells were smaller and mostly 

 without rudimental wings ; those in the interior cells were larger, 

 with distinctly developed mandibles and rudimentary wings ge- 

 nerally, the pupae of soldiers. The young in the interior of this 

 cellular work, with a few exceptions, were assuming the yellow 



