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



must be satisfied with the facts furnished in the preceding lines, i.e., 

 that our common noxious wood-eaters construct, and may be known 

 by, their quite distinct feeding figures as well as fillings. 



I add some few remarks about the localities in which wood- 

 destroyers are known to exist. Leucotermes is frequently met with 

 in houses in Bombay ; I have also found it occasionally as an inqui- 

 line in nests of mound-building Termites in Salsette (in the jtingle 

 along the Tulsi river, east of Borivli village, about 20 miles north of 

 Bombay), and Khandala (Bhor Ghats). Coxjtotermes abounds in 

 houses and all sorts of timber in Bombay ; I have also taken speci- 

 mens from logs of firewood in Gujarat (Anand and Tadtal, Kaira 

 District) ; another lot was sent to me from Karachi.* Odontoter- 

 mes Tece is of common occurrence in all kinds of drj:^ wood in 

 Bombay, Borivli Jungle, Khandala and Poona. Once I observed 

 them feeding on railwa}^ sleepers piled up at Karjat Station (G.I.P.R.). 

 Caloterones was found in a big branch of a drj^ tree at Bangalore ; 

 MicTotermes in dry wood (board, logs, and the like) at Valan 

 (Ahmednagar District), Anand, Bombay and Khandala (in the 

 latter place as 'an inquiline in mounds of other species) ; 

 Microcerotermes in dry bamboo stumps in Borivli jungle, in a pole 

 stuck into the ground at Poona, in logs of firewood at Vadtal, and 

 at Valan. Other habitats of the different kinds of wood-destroyers 

 will no doubt be added in course of time if more general attention 

 is paid to these matters. 



It is as yet impossible to give an answer to the burning question, 

 "Which woods are undoubtedly termite-proof?" Teakwood is 

 often mentioned as such, and more recently the Australian Jarra- 

 wood is time and again praised for possessing this quality. That 

 such assertions are not altogether in harmou}^ with facts is evident 

 from the third photograph on plate II showing a piece of 

 "pucka" teakwood attacked by Leucotermps, and the second photo 

 on plate III representing a block of Jarra-wood partly destroyed 

 by Go2)totermes.-\ Experiments so far made to ascertain which 

 different kinds of w^ood — treated as well as untreated — are safe from 

 the attacks of White Ants, are in my opinion largely unreliable, 

 because it has been left out of consideration whether the Termites 

 made use of for these trials were genuine wood-destroyers, or not. 

 Further investigations are, therefore, necessary, if the question is to 

 be settled definitely. 



Before concluding this paper, I beg to add a few remarks on 

 an all-important desideratum in relation to widening our know- 

 ledge of the various noxious White Ants. This desideratum is : 



* My sincere thanks are due to Mr. Kundanmal Utamsing, S. D. 0., who was kind 

 enough to collect these specimens for me in a house badly infested with them. 



t- A present to my collection from Mr. L. H. Savile, Executive Engineer to the 

 Bombay Port Trust, to whom I am greatly indebted. 



