1873.1 Date | [Hagen. 
CORRODENTIA. 
1. Termes flavipes Kollar. Hag. Syn., 3, 1. 
No. 17. Termes domesticus Harr. Cat. On fences and in the 
house, Milton, May 25, 1825. Male imigo winged. 
No. 57. Termes. Milton. Decayed wood and trees, October 1, 
1822. Full-grown worker. 
No. 61. Termes agrarius Harr. Cat. Cambridge, May 1, 1831. 
Under stones. 
Two winged females, two soldiers and two young workers. 
This species was fifty years ago introduced with plants into the im- 
perial hot-houses at Schoenbrunn, near Vienna. No attention was 
given until suddenly the hot-houses were found dangerously injured, 
and the wooden flower-tubs tumbled in pieces. The hot-houses were 
rebuilt in iron, but the Termes still remains. This species was de- 
scribed by Kollar as 7. flavipes; later by Haldeman as 7’. frontale. 
It seems to live every where in the United States east of the Rocky 
Mountains, from Cleveland, O., and Springfield, Ill., to Florida and 
Matamoras, Mexico. So far as I know the species has only been 
twice observed here as an obnoxious one; in the first case, described 
by Mr. S. H. Scudder, the grape vines in a hot-house near Salem, 
Mass., were destroyed by them. ‘The second case was more serious; 
sin Springfield, Ill., all the spare copies of the publications of the 
Legislature were stored up in a closed room in the State House, and 
remained unexamined several years, when one day all the copies 
were found destroyed in the most thorough manner by Termes /flavi- 
pes. One of these books is in my possession, a precious gift of the 
late Benjamin D. Walsh. I think the public should know that these 
insects at certain unforseen times can grow to be a formidable enemy 
to the country for years, and may damage property to the extent of 
millions of dollars. The very similar species in the southwest of 
Europe, Termes lucifugus, known to live there long ago, became sud- 
denly, in the years 1830 to 1850, exceedingly destructive, and all 
kinds of remedies were tried with little success. Now, although 
_ found there, they do not do much damage. Five years ago our spe- 
cies was scarce around Cambridge, but in June, 1871, suddenly they 
appeared everywhere in such numbers that the newspapers men- 
tioned them several times. They are found everywhere in the Botan- 
ical Garden, in the old fences around the Observatory and near the 
Museum of Comparative Zoology. JI also found them destroying the 
