PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 887 



finding insufficient depth of soil on top of the block for oviposition, are 

 then forced to oviposit against the glass through which their motions 

 may be watched. The space between glass and wooden block may be 

 varied with the size of the grasshopper under rearing. 



For Heliompris bucephalus a small cage is unsuitable. The beetles 

 were therefore placed in a large side cage in the Insectary. They at once 

 bored mto the earth. Fresh cowdung was placed on the surface of the 

 earth and was taken down by the beetles through 'tortuous galleries up 

 to a depth of about 4 feet. Oviposition was successful and a brood was 

 reared out. 



It is easy to get soil-living termites to estabUsh colonies in glas.? jars. 

 The jars are filled with moist earth which is somewhat pressed down and 

 an artificial hole is made in the earth by forcing a pencil or stick into it. 

 From among the winged termites which appear at the time of their annual 

 flight a pair, consisting of a male and a female, is picked out and placed 

 in this hole. Very soon they lay eggs and workers and soldiers appear 

 in due course and are observed to form tunnels. Many colonies of 

 Odontotennes assmuihi were established in this manner in the course of 

 the last five years. In the jars the development of the colonies caimot 

 be properly traced. For this purpose the tile cage illustrated in PI. 136, 

 fig. 2 was devised. It was made by a local potter. It has three chambers 

 with two partition walls in the middle. But the chambers communicate 

 with one another by means of holes in the partition walls. Besides 

 these chambers there is a cavity at one end meant to serve as a reservoir 

 for water. The idea was that the water kept in this reservoir would 

 slowly soak and keep the tile moist. In actual practice however it waS 

 found that the water fi-om this reservoir soaked so rapidly and so much 

 that the chambers became too damp for the termites. Therefore water 

 is kept in a separate vessel and a wetted wick of cotton lint is used so 

 that one end of the wick is dipped in the water and the other end rests 

 on the tile. By this means just sufficient water is soaked up by the tile 

 to keep it moist. The face of the tile is well smoothed by bemg rubbed 

 on a flat stone. The chambers are covered by glass plates through 

 which the insects inside are visible. In order to produce darkness in the 

 chambers, on top of the glass plates are placed other glass plates on which 

 black paper has been pasted. When it is necessary to observe the insects 

 the upper plates are lifted up. A pair of the winged termites, usually 

 those which have shed their wings, are placed in one chamber in the 

 tile and are allowed to occupy whichever chamber they prefer. The 

 majority of those tried established colonies in the first chamber, i.e., 

 the one next to the source of water and none selected the third chamber. 

 Colonies of Odontotermes assmuthi have lived in these tiled cages for about 



