TERMITES IN THE UNITED STATES. 17 



pasteboard, rolls of cloth, and other fabrics, clothing, shoes, and 

 other leather products, as well as food stored in dark, damp base- 

 ments or similar moist places where the ventilation is poor, are some- 

 times seriously injured or destroyed by termites. At St. Louis, Mo., 

 December 21, 1889, according to a correspondent of the Bureau of 

 Entomology, termites bored through a full bolt of " Conestoga " 

 ticking into wood about one- fourth to three-eighths inch in thick- 

 ness. The ticking had been lying on a shelf for about a month and 

 was covered with excrement where bored. Cotton yarn stored in 

 a mill (Raleigh, N. C.) and cotton goods (Vincennes, Ind.) have 

 been reported to be injured by termites. Entire stacks of books and 

 paper (Pis. VII and VIII) are often completely penetrated and 

 ruined by the burrows of these insects. W. S. Abbott has referred 

 me to an instance at Manchester, N. H., where, according to E. J. 

 Burnham, 1 documents were damaged in a cement vault in a basement, 

 the insects probably entering in with the pine boards sheathing the 

 vault. Similar cases have been recorded in Washington, D. C, and 

 elsewhere. Termites usually infest this class of material indirectly 

 through the moist or decayed wooden flooring, shelving, or casing on 

 which the products are stored. At Cazenovia, 111., paper lining under 

 rugs and the carpets and rugs, where in their path, were eaten 

 through, the insects coming up through the infested flooring under- 

 neath. 



Some unusual cases of injury to other stored products have been 

 furnished by F. H. Chittenden, in charge of Truck Crop and Stored 

 Product Insect Investigations in the Bureau of Entomology; i. e., 

 samples of flour received from New Orleans, La., in which were 

 large lumps containing burrows made by Leucotermes fldvipes, a few 

 dead insects being still present in the same. The sacks containing 

 this flour were unloaded on a platform under cover about the middle 

 of November. The bottom sacks were cut as with a knife immedi- 

 ately above the floor and in these bottom sacks the lumps of flour 

 were found that contained the white ants. Some sacks and bags re- 

 ceived containing rice were injured in about the same way. The bot- 

 toms were eaten out of the sacks and the insects, by means of an ad- 

 hesive substance, caused the rice to stick together at the bottom of the 

 sacks. Another case of injury to stored rice occurred at Baton 

 Rouge, La. Peanuts in store have also been attacked. On May 9, 

 1910, many layers of damaged bandage muslin (PI. XIV, fig. 2), 

 which had been lying on a wooden floor, were received from a Phila- 

 delphia hospital. The correspondent stated that this had happened 

 a number of times. 



1 Burnham. E. J. Damage by white ants. In Nature Study, v. 3, no. 2, p. 201-203, 

 Manchester, N. H., April, 1903. 



