262 



ENTOMOLOGY 



logs, stumps or other dead wood. The nuptial flight of this species 

 takes place in spring, when the two sexes swarm in' numbers that are 

 sometimes enormous. One swarm, as recorded by Hagen, appeared as 

 a dense cloud, and was being followed and attacked by no less than 

 fifteen species of birds, among which were robins, bluebirds and sparrows; 

 some of the robins were so gorged to the mouth with termites that their 

 beaks stood open. Though plenty of winged females are said to occur 

 in the swarming season, the true queen of T. flavipes is extremely rare, 

 the queen usually found being evidently, from her undeveloped wings, a 

 substitute queen. 



In the Western states, six species of termites are known, including 



Termes lucifugus, which has probably 

 been introduced from Europe. In this 

 species the primary queen is known 

 to exist. Regarding the Californian 

 Termopsis angusticollis, Dr. Heath 

 says that if only one of the royal pair 

 be destroyed usually only one sub- 

 stitution form is developed, but when 

 both perish, from ten to forty substi- 

 tutes appear, according to the size of 

 the colony; furthermore a remark- 

 able fact these substitution royalties 

 may contain workers or even soldiers 

 capable of laying eggs. 



Architecture. While many ter- 

 mites simply burrow in dead wood, 

 other species construct more elaborate 

 nests. A Jamaican species builds huge 

 nests in the forks of trees, with covered 

 passageways leading to the ground. 



In parts of Africa and Australia, where they are free from disturb- 

 ance, termites erect huge mounds, frequently six to ten and sometimes 

 eighteen or twenty feet high, with galleries extending as far below the 

 surface of the ground as they do above it. These immense structures 

 (Fig. 279) consist chiefly of earth, cemented by means of some secretion 

 into a stony clay, with which also much excrementitious matter is mixed ; 

 they are pyramidal, columnar, pinnacled or of various other forms, ac- 

 cording to the species, and are perforated by thousands of passages and 



FIG. 279. Termite mound, Kimber- 

 ley type, Australia. After SAVILLE- 

 KENT. 



