694 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXllI. 



I add a few remarks referring to the moot point, whether 

 Termites destroy live plants and trees. I can only repeat what I 

 wrote in my previons paper (l.c.p. 381, foot note) : none of the 

 wood-destrojT'ers I have seen feed on live plant tissue. Wherever 

 I came across green plants or trees infested by Termites — and I have 

 examined a good many — I could alwaj^s ascertain that only dry 

 and decaying portions of wood, or else mosses and lichens growing 

 on the surface of the bark, were being devoured by the White 

 Ants ; where the live tissue began, the ttmnels and burrows of the 

 Termites ceased. 



I am glad to be able to quote in confirmation of my views the 

 opinion of Mr. A. V. d. Poorten, a Ceylon planter of large ex- 

 perience in cocoanut, etc., cultivation, whose acquaintance I made 

 last May. In the course of our conversation he told me — quite un- 

 solicited on my part- — he was convinced that White Ants never 

 started an attack on healthy trees. Where he had found them 

 feeding on trees, the first injuries could, as a rule, be traced to some 

 other cause ; the Termites had put in their appearance only later 

 on to complete the destruction of the already diseased portions of 

 the tree. 



The following significant fact may throw some light on the 

 belief of many people in India that Termites destroy live plants. 

 During the last two years insects labelled " White Ants, very in- 

 jurious to crops", were sent to me from three different places, viz., 

 Eanchi, Ahmednagar, and Anand (Nos. 422,108, and 596 of my 

 collection). Examination of the specimens received showed how- 

 ever that none of them were White Ants, but all belonged to a 

 species of light-brown or yellowish genuine Ants (Formicidce') of 

 the Dorylus tribe. This Ant may well be mistaken for a Termite 

 by a casual observer. 



Until, therefore, convincing evidence to the contrary is produced 

 I hold that the Termites of the Indian Continent — of others I have 

 no practical experience — are innocent of the damages to crops or 

 live plants so often attributed to them. Either the plants were 

 already diseased when falling a prey to the White Ants, or else the 

 culprit is not a " White Ant," but a " real Ant." 



