lO SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 



apparently hypertrophied structures have a very definite function." 

 Even where it seems most certain that there is a teratological devel- 

 opment of the soldier head, it can be proven — even granting such an 

 origin — that they have become exquisitely adapted to particular 

 functions. 



In the genus Anoplotermes the soldier caste is completely absent 

 but it may be significant that the workers and winged forms often 

 have very elongate mandibles (pi. 3, fig. 7). Species of Anoploterines 

 are often found living closely associated with termites having man- 

 dibulate soldiers, or in hard mound nests. 



The lower termites (Kalotermitidae) and many Rhinotermitidae 

 are entirely wood-boring in habit and live a protected life in dead 

 trees, logs, and stumps. They are negatively phototropic to a marked 

 degree, and when boring in logs they always leave a thin layer or 

 shell of wood on the exterior. In one interesting case, Cryptotermes 

 thompsonae Snyder of Panama, in making use of the exit holes of 

 a wood-boring beetle, these holes were capped over or closed by the 

 termites using a sticky substance and their pellets of excrement 

 (pi. 3, figs. 10 and 11) ; this is rather unusual in the case of a 

 Kalotermitid. 



In addition to being subterranean in habit, many termites build 

 carton, earth-like shelter tubes (pi. 3, fig. 8) when they desire 

 to come out above ground or into the open. That is, they carry 

 earth, their source of protection and moisture, with them above 

 ground, over stones, up tree trunks, etc. Termites abandon colonies 

 in wood that have been disturbed, emigrating through underground 

 galleries — often to considerable depths ; this also occurs to avoid 

 extremes in temperature (and lack of moisture), particularly in 

 arid or cold regions. Some species of termites of subterranean habit 

 have subfossorial legs. 



Among the Termitidae the nests are often architecturally perfect 

 and nests of the Lower Congo have a regular system of ventilation. 

 The meridional magnetic mounds of the compass termite of 

 Australia and solid earthen mound nests hard enough to support 

 the weight of a wild bull show specialization of a high degree. These 

 towering hillocks — often like negro huts in considerable villages — 

 (pi. 3, fig. 9) afiford adequate protection to the immobile queens 

 which are frequently of huge size. These queens are imprisoned 

 in a royal cell, which in some nests is in the central portion near 

 the base. The large carton semi-spherical " niggerhead " tree nests 

 (pi. 3, fig. 12) of Nasutitermes are usually of tough texture; queens 

 in these nests are not as large as those of Tcrmes, seldom being over 



