374 JOURl^AL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXU. 



this fact. This plate shows photographs of 10 soldiers, and 

 certainly each of them is so different from all the others (except 

 Nos. 2 and 3 which are closely related members of the same genus) 

 that there can be no doubt but that they belong to really distinct 

 kinds.* As it is wrong, then, to believe that all White Ants are 

 alike, it is likewise wrong to suppose that all of them are injurious 

 to wood. A good many of them, no doubt, are wood-eaters, but 

 others are not. 



A close observation of facts shows that Termites may be divided 

 into three classes : first those that make wood their staple diet in 

 preference to anj^^thing else ; second those that feed occasionally 

 on wood and then only to a smaller extent ; and third those that 

 never touch wood at all. The first class are truly noxious insects, 

 the second are more or less indifferent, and the third are altogether 

 harmless (i.e., as far as wood is concerned). To the first class 

 belong Leucotermes indicola Wasm., the genuine Indian "house 

 termite " (see plate I, fig. 1), Goftotermes Heimi Wasm. (pi. I, 2), 

 Go'ptotermes iDarvulus Holmgr. (pi. I, 3), and Odontotermes Fece 

 Wasm. (pi. I, 4). These four are the most important wood- 

 desti'oyers ; Termites occurring in houses or dry timber of any sort 

 will in a large majority of cases be found to belong to one of these 

 kinds. But they are not our only noxiovis species, three others 

 have to be added which, however, are of decidedly rarer occurrence; 

 they are not, as a rule, present in houses but only in beams, logs 

 and the like in the open : Galotermes (^Neotermes) Assmuthi Holmgr. 

 (pi. I, 5) Microtermes anandi Holmgr. with the distinct forma 

 ■curvignatlms (pi. I, 6), which is usually met with in the central 

 parts of the Presidency, said. Microcerotermes Heimi Wasm. (pi. I, 7). 



The second class — occasional wood-eaters — is rather lai-ge and 

 comprises a great many different species. Especially noteworthy 

 among them are the mound-builders, i.e., all those Termites that 

 build overground structures above their nests. The real nest is, 

 as a rule, situated in holes excavated underground, the mounds are 

 merelj^ an accumulation of earthy material brought up from below 

 when enlarging the nest quarters. All our mound-builders are 

 "fungus growers, " that is to say, they prepare within their nest- 

 holes a kind of porous structure looking somewhat like a honey- 

 comb or sponge, on which they grow the chief item of their diet, 

 a certain fungus. Consequently they venture but rarely out of 

 their nests in search of other food, and this apparently only when 

 about to ameliorate the old, or construct fresh, fungus beds. For 

 this purpose they are commonly satisfied with small fragments of 

 wood (diy branches and the like) and dry leaves or grass lying 



* There are, of course, many more different species of White Ants to be found in 

 India ; but the ten photos represent Termites either more nearly concerned with the 

 subject in question or of more common occurrence in the Bombay Presidency. 



