4 ART. 7. — SANJI HOZAWA .* 



my efforts to do so, must be left for future investigators to 

 decide. All that I can state at present is, that the specimens I 

 succeeded in collecting consisted of Leucotermes (Ret I cu liter mes) 

 speratus (Kolbe) only. I may add also, that the island is a small one, 

 and my search for the termite was pretty thorough, so as to leave 

 no reasonable doubt in my mind, that no other existed at the time. 



In 1882 Schutt (1) published a general account concerning 

 the Japanese termite. In making comments on Dödeelein's obser- 

 vations of termites in Ukishima, he seems inclined to deny the 

 existence of termites in Japan altogether, thus agreeing with Rein's 

 first view, basing his argument on the supposition that Japan is 

 devoid of the natural environments essential to the termites' 

 existence. His statement was as follows : " Dass übrigens Japan, 

 ganz abgesehen von dem, für seine Lage, nicht allzufern den 

 Tropen, äusserst rauhen Klima, kein Kanaan für Termiten sein kann, 

 lässt sich leicht ersehen. Die gebirgigen Neunzehntel des Landes 

 existiren natürlich für sie nicht und auch die Aschen und Tufie 

 der sanfter geneigten Hara's resp. der Ebenen können sie nicht 

 verwenden, sie brauchen Lehm zu ihrer Existenz, und wo hier 

 etwa solcher vorhanden, hat ihn der fleissige Landmann gewiss 

 ebenfalls in einen Eeissumpf verwandelt ; die Termiten aber heben 

 den trocknen Thon und derselbe nasse Grund, der liier so vielfache 

 Neuropterenformen (Libellen etc.) zeugt, lässt Termiten nicht auf- 

 kommen." etc. 



The first to study Japanese termites from the systematic point 



of view, with accuracy was Kolbe. In his paper (1), besides giving 



a historical account of the works referring to the termites of Japan, 



Kolbe describes a new species which he called 'Termes speratus. 



"olbe's study was based on the material found in Tokyo by 



lgendobf and in the neighbourhood of Hakodate by Blakiston. 



