6 BULLETIN 1233, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



scolytid, but showing additional enlargements. This is the same tree 

 on which workers and soldiers of Eutermes debilis Heer were col- 

 lected on October 26, 1921, from shelter tubes. Workers and a few 

 soldiers of E. debilis were again collected on June 19,*1922; soldiers 

 were scarce. 



CRYPTOTERMES THOMPSONAE Snyder. 



Several species of Cryptotermes occur at Panama, but C. thomp- 

 sonae is the only one on which the writers have any biological notes. 

 It is very destructive to the dry woodwork of buildings. 



On July 25, 1921, Zetek and Molino collected soldiers and winged 

 and deflated sexual adults of Cryptotermes thompsonae from a pop- 

 lar case (PI. Ill, D) in the office of the Board of Health Laboratory 

 at Ancon, Canal Zone. This wooden case is a survival of the equip- 

 ment of the old wooden hospital and was put into this ward when 

 the new hospital building was completed. The termites were mostly 

 in the baseboard. The winged forms were not very abundant and 

 were congregated in small " pockets ;" the soldiers were not aggres- 

 sive or plentiful. 



Zetek found soldiers and clealated sexual adults in hard beech 

 wood of a drawer of a desk in Section B of Ancon Hospital on 

 August 30, 1921. The desk had been in this screened concrete 

 building for five years (PL III, A). 



The dry hardwood of a back panel of an organ in the Eoman 

 Catholic Chapel at Ancon, Canal Zone, was found by Zetek, on 

 October 19, 1921, to be damaged by this termite. The insects had 

 gone into nearly all parts of the wood (PI. Ill, B). No winged 

 forms were present and soldiers were very scarce; nymphs of the 

 sexual adults were abundant. Out of the back of this organ as 

 much as 500 cubic centimeters of impressed pellets of excrement 

 (PI. Ill, C) could have been obtained; the actual size of these pel- 

 lets is 0.85 by 0.54 millimeter. 



Dealated adults were collected on June 19, 1922, under bark on 

 the trunk of a dead tree on the Ancon Hospital grounds. 



LEUCOTERMES TENUIS Hagen. 



Species of Leucotermes are very similar in habit to species of 

 Eeticulitermes. Nevertheless, unlike the latter, they consistently 

 line their galleries with white excrement (not spotted) and live in 

 association with other insects. Earthlike shelter tubes (PI. IV, 

 A, B, 6") are constructed by species of both genera. Two species of 

 Leucotermes occur in Panama, namely, tenuis Hagen and convexi- 

 notatus Snyder; apparently these species do not greatly differ in 

 their habits; each species occurs on both the Atlantic and Pacific 

 slopes. Species in this genus not only injure living vegetation and 

 the woodwork of buildings, but also damage lead-sheathed under- 

 ground cables. 



On August 10, 1921, Zetek and Molino found a nest on the trunk 

 of a coconut palm on the Venado Plantation, Venado, Pacific slope, 

 Canal Zone. The termitarium was about 8 inches by 5 inches, of 

 earthlike material, soft outside and harder within, and composed^ 

 largely of cells. This " nest " was partly within the trunk — about 

 2 inches. It contained workers, soldiers, and a first-form queen 



