426 THE PAEASITES OF THE TERMITES. 



" Memoir on the Organization of Termes lucifugum of France," published in the 

 Annales d. Sciences Naturelles, vol. v., 1856. Page 237, in describing the digestive 

 apparatus of the w^orkers, he says: "Au ventricle fait suite une poche volumineuse, 

 courbe, boursoutlee, et pleine d'une matiere brune dans laquelle fourmilient les 

 nombreux Infusoires dont j'aurai a m'occuper plus tard. D'apres la nomenclature 

 generalement adoptee ce devrait ^tre I'intestin grele." Further, on the same page, 

 he says: "L'intestin est ordinairement rempli d'une sorte de bouillie brune, 

 vivante agglomeration d'Infusoires." 



Page 258, M. Lespes remarks in regard to the winged males and females, "le 

 tube digestive contient rarement la bouillie brune que nous avons trouv^e chez les 

 ouvriers et les soldats; o'est une matiere de couleur beaucoup moins foncee que le 

 remplit. II fourmille toujours d'animalcules que je d'ecrirai plus tard." At the 

 conclusion of an article entitled " Note on a Nematoid Parasite of the Termites," 

 page 335 of the same volume, M. Lespes says : " J'ai trouve dans le tube digestive 

 des Termites un assez grand nombre de parasites, sur lesquels je me promets de 

 revenir avant long temps." 



A quarter of a century has elapsed and yet it would appear that M. Lespes 

 has given no further account of the parasites of the Termites, which may be 

 regretted, for we have reason to believe that the author of the memoir on the 

 organization of the Termes lucifugum would have given us an equally faithful 

 account of the community of creatures it sustains. 



Some animals are so habitually and constantly infested with multitudes of 

 various parasites that it would appear to be their normal condition. Such is 

 strikingly the case with our common large Julus J. marginatus or Spiroholus mar- 

 ginatus, and the still more common beetle, Passahis cornutus, as described by the 

 writer in an article entitled " A Flora and Fauna within Living Animals," pub- 

 lished in 1853, in the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. So constant 

 is the occurrence of parasites in the animals just indicated, that in reference to 

 one of them I was led to remark that entophytes would be constantly found in the 

 genus Julus in any part of the world (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 1849, 228). It was 

 perhaps this expression of opinion which led M. Charles Robin to examine the 

 Julus terrestris of Europe, leading to the discovery of the Enterohryus Juli terres- 

 tris. (See Hist. Nat. des Vegetaux Parasites, etc., Paris, 1853, p. 398.) Only a 

 few weeks since while strolling in the country I noticed a Julus crossing the road, 

 when it occurred to me that it would afford me an opportunity of comparing one 

 of its parasitic plants with one occurring in the Termite, and I therefore took 

 possession of the truant. On examination, sure enough, there were all the para- 



