790 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL lUST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXL 



reddish earthy material ; the royal cell is situated rather more 

 downwards, not in the centre. Eggs are, of course, found in 

 greater quantities in chambers in the neighbourhood of the royal 

 cell, but I could not convince myself that thej were limited to a 

 definite space which might rightlj;- be termed a " zone ". — Number 

 of workers, as is always the case in this species, yqvj great, that of 

 soldiers rather small/' (Assmuth.) 



25-3-1911. — "Spherical nest of very tough woody material- 

 Nest not perfect^ spherical, but somewhat elongate. Greater 

 axis 24-28 cm., smaller 15-20 cm. Nest built just above surface 

 of ground on withered bamboo-stump, as is apparently the rule 

 with this species." (Assmuth.) 



5-4-1911. — " Spherical nest. Full}' developed queen in ro\'al 

 cell, but no king. The latter, in fact, never found in any of the 

 many nests examined. In a number of nests of this species the 

 royal cell was found, but no queen in it, though nest was other- 

 wise crammed full of termites." (Assmuth.) 



5-4-1911. — " Spherical nest containing double (two-storied) 

 royal cell, the one situated above the other, both separated by 

 simple flat partition forming ceiling of low^er, and bottom of upper, 

 cell, pierced with a fair number of small holes for passage of 

 workers and soldiers. No fewer than 13 queens, but no king. 

 Though queens here of different size, jet all of them smaller than 

 those found singly in other nests. Dimensions of nest about 

 the same as stated above." (Assmuth.) — Assmuth is right in 

 believing that the queens are neoteinic; the species con- 

 sequently belongs — together with Armitermes neotenictis, Holmg. — 

 to those which construct special chambers for the neoteinic 

 individuals. 



Note — The build of Microcerotermes nests might perhaps be 

 taken as a proof that they have followed a line of development 

 different from that of the Eute/innes-ne&ts of South America which 

 I have described. The study of portions of nests of M. ixtimanus 

 and M. Biroi from New Guinea, which I made some time ago, 

 convinced me that such was the case. This fact can not be 

 surprising, since Microcerotermes, morphologically, belongs to quite 

 another line of descent than Eidermes ; and, as a matter of fact, 



