Hubbard.] 268 [December 26, 



burn readily, but with a smoky flame, the old deserted nests are 

 much used for making smudges in mosquito season. The nest con- 

 sists of a thin, unbroken, external covering enclosing an irregularly 

 honey-combed mass. The passages and the septae between them 

 occupy about equal portions of the whole mass; the former might be 

 filled up and the latter dissolved out without greatly altering the 

 character of the structure. The newer outer portions are friable, 

 but towards the centre and bottom the material grows denser, and in 

 some species becomes harder than wood. 



At the bottom of the nest is a single entrance from which a cov- 

 ered gallery leads to the earth. These covered ways, of thin papery 

 material, and of about the diameter of a lead pencil, are everywhere 

 met with, even at great distances from any nest, ascending the tallest 

 trees in a straight line, and sending branch galleries along every 

 limb. Almost every cocoanut tree has a termite gallery running up 

 one side of its stem, like a lightning conductor, from its root to its 

 crown. Termites are found streaming up and down them by day as 

 well as by night. 



At or near the centre of the nest, in an irregular cavity not much 

 larger than her body, is the solitary queen, distended with eggs, and 

 perfectly helpless. The swollen abdomen in one species is over an 

 inch long and three-tenths of an inch in diameter. In the unimpreg- 

 nated female the abdomen is about one-tenth as long. The cell in 

 which the queen is imprisoned has very indistinct walls, 1 but the 

 entrances to it are much smaller than the surrounding cavities. 



The eggs are removed by the workers, and are usually found at 

 the bottom of the nest. The young are fed upon prepared food 

 which is stored up in the form of very hard and tough rounded 

 masses, evidently composed of comminuted wood. These nodules 

 are disposed without regularity throughout the interior of the nest, 

 and are imbedded in the cellular mass which is cut away to receive 

 them. Some nests contain many pounds weight of them, others of 

 the same species of termite, none at all. Perhaps no nest is at all 

 times supplied. The nodules also vary in size from small grains to 

 lumps larger tjian a man's head. They are hollowed out by the 

 young termites, which eat into them from the under side. 



It may assist the study of the habits and economy of these inter- 

 esting animals to give, from field notes, the results of an examination 



1 There is no cell, strictly speaking, but a hollow space left among the septae and 

 the passages. Dr. H. 



