630 rEOCEEDIXGS OF THE THIRD E^TOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



are injurious. Up to the present time about fifty species have been 

 noticed by us, but none of them is completely studied j-et. The follow- 

 ing brief note on each species is chiefly summarized from several obser- 

 vations and experiments in the fields or laboratory. 



Insect pests of the tea-plant in Formosa. 

 No. 1. — Odontotermes formosanus. Shir. {Hime Shiroari.) 



This termite is commonly found all over Formosa, while it occurs 

 in Burma,* Siam, Hongkong, Canton, Fokien, Ishigakijima, and Loo- 

 Choo. 



The imagines swarm usually in the afternoon from five to seven 

 o'clock from April to August, and they come down to the ground. After 

 a journey on the surface of the soil the couple find a cleft or hole in the 

 ground and enter into it. In about five or eight days the female begins 

 to deposit her eggs (slightly curved elliptical, 2/3 mm. long) in a roughly- 

 formed royal cell, not very many but twenty to thirty daily, and about a 

 week later the female or male carries out the eggs from the royal cell to 

 the other places which are galleries fi-om the cell. The larvae which first 

 appear are almost always soldiers, but there are rarely found a few 

 workers. Afterwards the female deposits her eggs gradually, but not 

 on every day, and thus the workers increase in number. During this 

 rime the female grows longer and thicker in the abdomen and in about 

 a year her abdomen measures about one inch or more in length.^ 

 At that time the royal cell is almost completely formed, flat and irre- 

 gularly ovate (about half an inch in height and about two inches or 

 less in long-diameter), while the nest around (almost always above half 

 of the royal cell) the royal cell consists of numberless small cells con- 

 taining the round spongy fungus-bed, each of which connect with 

 one other by means of many narrow galleries. The nest is about one 

 inch or more in thickness and about sis inches or more in longitudinal 

 diameter, and it is almost always roundish but somewhat flat, espe- 

 cially on the lower side. This nest containing the royal cell gradually 

 grows larger, and in the next year it becomes about twice in height or 

 length and in the following year thrice, and in the fourth year th.e nest 

 is about three and a half feet or more long and about one and a half 

 feet high. The nest described just above must be a central one, 

 while the other nests connected to it by narrow (about a half inch or 

 less in diameter and about one-fifth inch or more in depth) exceed- 

 ingly long galleries, which are from about six feet to 500 feet, from the 



» We have no information regarding the occurrence of this Termite in Burma.— 

 Editor. 



