18 BULLETIN 1232, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



NASUTITERMES EPHRATAE Holmgren. 



Nasutitermes ephratae is very destructive in Panama, although 

 apparently not quite as common as N. cornigera. Out-of-door, 

 semispherical, " niggerhead," carton tree nests constructed of earth 

 and excreted wood made by this species are apparently very rare 

 in Panama. 



At the Venado Plantation, Venado, Canal Zone, on August 10, 

 1921, Zetek and Molino found that almost all the coconut palms had 

 tunnels of Nasutitermes on the trunks. Many palms had fairly 

 large nests on the trunks just below the crown, where they were pro- 

 tected by the "lace." These termites also work freely between the 

 sheaths of the frond petioles, mining well into the plant tissues of 

 the trunk. They are very destructive and do not seem to confine 

 their attack to sickly trees, but apparently any palm may be infest- 

 ed. They are abundant also on other trees in this grove. Workers 

 and soldiers collected from a gallery proved to be N. ephratae. 



INJURY TO ELECTRICAL INSULATION. 



This termite has also affected electrical insulation. On Novem- 

 ber 29, 1921, a typical Nasutitermes termitarium, probably a sec- 

 ondary "nest," was discovered in a service box in a lamp-post. 

 Specimens of the termites were collected by Zetek and Molino, with 

 the assistance of E. St. Clair Clayton, who discovered the place, at 

 Miraflores, Canal Zone, east wall, lake section, in concrete lamp- 

 post No. §00. 



These concrete lamp-posts have a bronze service box in which 

 are two sockets for telephone service and one socket for a portable 

 110-volt light. They are covered with a bronze cover. The interior 

 of the post is hollow. The wires to the telephone and light services 

 come from a manhole opposite the post. In this case, this being the 

 end post, the manhole is only about 2 feet deep. Leucotermes tenuis 

 was collected in this service manhole. 



The termitarium was back of the frame on which the telephone 

 and light sockets were attached. It embraced all of the five wires 

 and even covered parts of the frame and sockets (PL IX, C). This 

 termitarium was about 15 inches in diameter and about 3 feet tall. 

 The photograph of this service box shows only a portion of the 

 nest, 



The termites did not eat into the lead anywhere, although where 

 the cable went through the termitarium the insects made a smooth 

 whitish covering about it (PI. VII, B). However, the cloth and 

 rubber insulation were eaten, as was the weatherproofed braid from 

 the wires leading to the overhead lights (PL IX, E). They do not 

 care for copper and usually when the copper was made bare, they 

 protected themselves from it by forming a sort of sheath of the same 

 substance as the rest of the termitarium (PL VII, D). Much of 

 this exposed copper wire was covered with verdigris. 



The thickness of the rubber protection is almost 1.5 millimeters. 



As' soon as the nest was opened in the least, hordes of nasuti or 

 soldiers came out to investigate. Whenever any one of these was 

 touched or picked up with forceps, it emitted a drop of whitish 

 liquid; sometimes it was squirted out, falling about 9 or 10 inches 



