378 JOURNAL BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



Leucotermes indicola always attacks first — and in many cases 

 (especially as regards dealwood) exclnsively — the soft portions of 

 wood, leaving intact the harder parts, i. e., the annual rings and 

 knots. Thus a very striking feeding-figure results which is shown 

 in the first photo of plate II. There we see the annual rings 

 stand out as well marked parallel lines, each two adjacent ones 

 being separated by a deep groove. In such kinds of wood, where 

 the annual rings are not so well developed as in dealwood, the 

 feeding figure is, of course, not cjuite so striking, yet it is in all 

 cases constructed on the same lines. 



Where Leucotermes meets small empty spaces such as in little boxes, 

 it fills them up in a peculiar way. Broad patches of a rather thin 

 greyish material — consisting apparently for the greater part of the 

 excrements of the Termites — are arranged in more or less horizontal 

 laj'-ers one above the other, with vertical partitions between them,, 

 so as to form a number of irregularly built chambers of different sizes. 

 The chambers are connected by a good many smaller or bigger holes 

 to enable the Termites to pass from one into the other. The gene- 

 ral appearance of such a structure is made evident by the second 

 photo of plate II which shows a small dealwood box attacked by 

 Leucotermes. The inner space of the box (lower portion of photo) 

 gives a pictvrre of the just described -'fillings" o^ Leucotermes, while 

 the lid (upper portion of photo) exhibits the abovementioned lines 

 of the annual rings with grooves between them. 



Similar fillings — commonly on a smaller scale but after the same 

 pattern as detailed above — are constructed by Leucotermes in any 

 sufficiently large hole forming in the wood as a result of prolonged 

 feeding in a limited area. We are sure to find them in such places 

 where the annual rings are close together and, at the same time,, 

 their hard portions greatly reduced, as is the case with timber cut 

 from near the bark of a tree. In wood of this sort the Termites 

 devour everything between the upper and lower surface of the 

 board, plank or the like, leaving only two sheets — sometimes as thin 

 as card-board — above and below; in the empty space between they 

 build their peculiar fillings. 



Something akin to these structures we find also on nearly every 

 piece of wood on which Leucotermes have been allowed to feed 

 undisturbed for a long while, even if larger holes as mentioned 

 above are missing. The fillings are then constructed on quite a 

 simple plan showing only the ground — or predominant form of the 

 more elaborate pattern, viz., a ribbon or sheet-like structure. They 

 are easily recognised on the first photo of plate II as a sort of 

 small ridges or broader patches built across the deep grooves cut 

 into the wood. 



Govtotermes — as appears from the deal-board represented in the 

 first photograph of plate III — has a feeding figure similar to that of 



