XII.—METHOD OF ATTACK, 
The methods of attack of T. gestroi are eminently characteristic, 
and when once their earthworks are seen and recognised, they can 
never be mistaken for those of any other species. "The tree seems first 
of all to be prospected, by two or three tunnels run straight up the 
trunk; if the indieations are favourable the whole circumference. is 
the ants speedily eat down to the cambium. The vast majority of 
attacks by individual termites are repelled by the cambium, but 
sooner or later a non-resistant spot is reached and the whole body of 
te 
by the actual death of the tree, for in many cases the living tissues 
are perfeetly sound, but from the weakening cf the trunk and taproot 
added to the natural brittleness of the wood, rendering them unable 
to resist the slightest wind pressure. On certain estates it has been 
through the scars thus produced. It is therefore highly important 
bu the cuts should be nee down = ke T into the cambium laver, 
as e case on the Sungei Ren tes, where in no — 
ае have ants secured а s foothold m in the manner indicated above 
XIII. 
GENERAL BIONOMICS OF TERMES GESTROI. 
not been successful, nor, so far as I am aware, has any сои 
пагане, in finding the king and queen of Termes gestroi. Amon 
numerous communities investigated one was found containing imma- 
ture winged forms and eggs, but careful search failed to reveal anything 
in the nature of a royal cell, which in all probability is not built by 
this species. The vast majority of nests contain merely soldiers and 
workers, and I concur with Dr. Haviland in thinking that it is 
extremely ate that the greater number of communities are without 
and are merely offshoots from some central nest, from 
which denim forms, and possibly eggs, are conveyed. Under 
conditions with which we are at present unfamiliar, it is not unlikely 
that sexually active males and females may be produced by post- 
metamorphic changes. The termitaria or nests are contained within 
the trunks of the ane attacked and are formed of narrow labyrinthine 
chambers composed of woody and earthy matter that has passed 
through the alimentary canal of the insects, the whole of the interior 
winged form e 
probable that the mensi season, like that of the other species of 
termites in this country, is from September to Christmas, and it is 
before and during this period that repressive measures should be most 
fore the more reason to believe that if vigorous preventive measures 
are persevered in for a A EPER TA time, the pest will gradually abate. 
