366 ME. G. T>. HATILAND ON TEEMITES. 



occupies a great part of the head, and opens by a duct which 

 passes down the rostrum. The soldiers may be seen to dab a 

 little of the fluid on the antennae o£ their enemies by a quick 

 movement which is clearly a modification of the shaking move- 

 ment so often seen in worker termites. By this means such 

 enemies as ants are placed hors de combat when they do not, 

 as they generally do, avoid these soldiers. But such a mode of 

 defence would seem quite useless in dealing with birds and 

 mammals. However, all the species of the section to which 

 T. umhrinus belongs traverse the jungle, returning home by day- 

 light exposed in long lines which take an hour or more to pass 

 one spot, the soldiers walking beside the laden workers. In 

 most of the species the soldiers and workers retreat when dis- 

 turbed ; but in T. longipes the behaviour is unusually active. The 

 workers vanish at once beneath sticks and leaves ; and if specimens 

 be not quickly secured, they will soon be very hard to find. The 

 soldiers, on the other hand, rush to the attack, not in line, but 

 singly ; climbing every leaf and stalk, they stand with uplifted 

 rostrum challenging the enemy. But these species with rostrum 

 and rudimentary mandibles are not the only ones which secrete a 

 viscid fluid from the head. The soldiers of T. foraminifer, 

 which have a saddle-shaped pronotum and long crooked mandibles, 

 also have a minute orifice in the front of the head. In all the 

 species of Bhinotermes the soldiers have a similar foramen and a 

 shallow groove which runs from it to the tip of the labrum. 

 T. malayanus has a similar minute foramen, the orifice of a sac 

 occupying the middle of the head. Most soldiers of the fungus- 

 growers and also those of T. sulphureus, when angry, discharge a 

 viscid fluid from large salivary vesicles opening into the mouth. 

 The most remarkable form of orifice in the front of the head is 

 in the section Coptoiermes. The soldiers of both T. Gestroi and 

 T. travians have very large orifices in the front of the head from 

 which, when angry, they emit a copious white viscid fluid which 

 runs down to the mandibles. The soldiers of T. Gestroi are very 

 ferocious. The species is one which deliberately attacks and 

 destroys live trees. The workers build up a thick earthy crust 

 round the stem of the tree for the height of 7 or 8 feet from 

 the ground ; beneath this crust they leisurely seek out weak 

 spots and penetrate to the centre of the tree. If the crust be 

 broken, the workers very quickly retreat; but the soldiers rush 

 to the attack, a milky white fluid standing between their open 



