TERMITES FROM BRITISH IXBIA. 789 



with in India ; still it seems rather surprising seeing that this 

 species is so far known only from Mozambique and Natal. How- 

 ever I do not believe that the resemblance of the soldiers in cjuestion 

 M'ith those of M. incertus necessaril}^ implies the identity of both 

 kinds. To substantiate my view I shall draw a parallel between 

 the imagines of some African and Indian species. The winged 

 individuals of M. Trcigardhi and M. sindensis show hardly any 

 difference at all, and their soldiers, I think, will be very nearly 

 alike. Again, M. incertus and M. obesi differ hardly in any other 

 respect but the number of segments of their antennas, there being 

 16 in incertus, 15 in ohesi. The two species are consecjuently very 

 closely related, which leads me to believe that their soldiers and 

 workers cannot be much different either. It seems to me highly 

 probable that the soldiers and workers before me belong to M. ohesi, 

 since part of them was found with Odontotermes ohesus in the same 

 locality as the imagines described above. 



Collector's Report : — 



KHA>fDALA, 2-6-1911. — "Termites the galleries of which were 

 constructed in a nest of 0. ohesus form ?>." (Assmuth.) 



8-6-1911.— "Under stone." (Assmuth.) 



MICROCEROTERMES SECTION. 



Gen. MICROCEROTERMES, Silv. 



Microcerotermes Heimi, Wasm. 



Tallies in all castes with co-types from Wasmaxn's collection as 

 well as with Ceylon specimens received from Green. 



Collector's report :— 



BoRivLi Jungle (Salsette Island), 5-2-1911. — " Spherical nest. 

 Proved by experiment that material of which nest is made 

 burns well when put in fire. — I have been unable to discover any 

 regular layers such as shown by j^ou (Holmgren, 1906) to exist in 

 South American termite-nests built of wood-carton. The nest of 

 Microcerotermes Heimi which is made of extremely hard wood}^ 

 material, presents a pretty uniform labyrinth of small chambers 

 which are connected by minute holes piercing the partitions, just 

 sufficiently large to allow the termites to pass through. The outer 

 surface is here and there covered with patches of a thin crust of 



