774 



TERMITES FROM BRITISH INDIA (BOMBAY) 

 COLLECTED BY DR. J. ASSMUTH, S.J. 



BY 



Nils Holmgren (Stockholm). 

 (With Plates A, B, C and D.) 



After Wasmann in 1903 published his paper on " Termiten, 

 Terraitophilen and Myrmecophilen gesammelt atif Ceylon von 

 Dr. W. Horn, 1899, etc.," the termite fauna of India seems to have 

 been lost sight of by termitologists. Wasmann's Treatise on the 

 Termites of the Continent of India (contained in the above named 

 paper) is based on extensive material collected by his correspon- 

 dents in India, Heini, Assmuth, Redemann, Martin, Hoogwerf, and 

 others. As will always happen in such cases, our knowledge of the 

 different species of termites remained incomplete, and it has not yet 

 been possible to fill up the gaps. 



As regards the termite fauna of Ceylon, which was dealt with 

 by Wasmann in the paper just mentioned, the collections of 

 Escherich and Green, which I have worked up, have completed our 

 knowledge of it in several points, and the number of species has 

 thereby been increased considerably ; however here, too, several 

 gaps remain to be filled up by future research. 



As for the termites of the Indian Continent our knowledge of 

 them has been enlarged somewhat by Desneux's description of some 

 termites of Sind. 



The latest valuable contribution to this siibject comes from 

 Dr. Assmuth, who, I am glad to see, has again begun collecting in 

 the neighbourhood of Bombay and who sent me last year a rich 

 collection (57 tubes) of Bombay termites. There is, it is true, but 

 one new species in the collection, which however is most valuable 

 as completing in a large measure our knowledge of the Indian 

 termites, both as regards the different castes and their several habits. 



The following species in British India had been known 

 already : — 



Fam. Protermitid^, Holmgr. 



Hodotermes macroceijlialus, Desn. ; all castes. 



