UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



yjfy DEPARTMENT BULLETIN NO. 1232 OW 



Washington, D. C. T 



June 27, 1924 



.... ... 



DAMAGE BY TERMITES IN THE CANAL ZONE AND PANAMA AND 

 HOW TO PREVENT IT. 



By Thomas E. Snyder, Entomologist, Forest Bisect Investigations , and James Zetek, 

 Specialist in Tropical Entomology , Bureau of Entomology . : 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Geographical distribution 2 



Relative damage by the families of 



termites 4 



Kalotermes tabogae Snyder 5 



Cryptotermes thompsonae Snyder — 6 



Leucoterm-es iemm.Hagen 6 



Injury to living crops 8 



Coptotermes nigt&r Snyder 8 



Injury to lead-sheathed cables 

 in the locks of the Panama 



Canal 9 



Damage to living trees 12 



Swarming 13 



A possible mechanical carrier of 

 the nematode Aphelenchus co- 

 cophilus which causes " red- 

 ring " disease of coconut palm 



trees 13 



Composition of shelter tubes 16 



Page. 



Nasntitermes comigera Motschulsky_ 16 



Swarming ; 17 



Nasutiterm.es ephratae Holmgren 18 



Injury to electrical insulation. _ 18 



Possible mechanical carriage of 



nematode 19 



Composition of shelter tubes 20 



'Nasutitermes oolumbicus Holmgren _ 20 



Subulitiermes seteki Snyder 21 



Eutermes ctebilis Heer i 21 



Anoplatermes gracilis Snyder 22 



Termite-like shelter tubes of an ant_ 22 



Control 22 



Literature cited 25 



INTRODUCTION. 



In a preliminary paper Dietz and Snyder (#) 2 have given an his- 

 torical survey of the status of the termites of Panama and have 

 written of their habits and ravages to both living vegetation and the 

 woodwork of buildings as well as to other works of man. This bulle- 

 tin gives additional original data on the habits of the termites of 

 this region, the damage they do, and their control In the case of 

 some of the species recently described by Snyder (8, 9) there has 

 been no knowledge of their habits — and they are very injurious — 

 since they had been confused with other known termites. Special 

 attention has been given to damage by termites to lead-sheathed 

 cables in conduits in locks of the Panama Canal and at other locali- 

 ties in Panama, as well as damage to telephone and lighting equip- 



1 The field note? were made by Mr. Zetek and the specimens were collected by him and 

 by IgnaciO' Mo-lino. All the determinations were made by Doctor Snyder, who has also 

 helped to interpret the field notes and has prepared the manuscript. 



2 Reference is made by number (italic) to " Literature cited," p. 25. 



71724° — 24- 



