Scudder.] 206 [January 26, 



chambers by the enlargements of the cylinder. A pillar goes through 

 all the compartments; close to this, or in it, runs an oblique passage 

 from each chamber to the next. Sometimes all these passages 

 together form a somewhat regular winding stair through all the com- 

 partments. For the impregnated female these passages are too 

 narrow, and she can therefore not leave her chamber. 



There are, both in the outer wall and in the horizontal divisions, 

 passages too small to admit the passing of the winged ants; but neither 

 in the outside wall nor in the chambers is there any opening to the 

 outside in nests which have not been injured. 



In the outside wall the passages run from top to bottom. In the 

 divisions, from circumference to centre without reaching this latter. 

 In the flat compartments they are not to be detected from the outside; 

 in the circumference they appear as flattened ridges. In drying, the 

 outer side of the passages falls off, and then they are to be seen as 

 deep hollows with inflated borders. In undisturbed nests the only 

 entrance seems to be on the upper surface some inches under ground. 



The nest is not directly connected with the earth, but is sur- 

 rounded by about a finger's breadth of free space. The nest can, 

 therefore, as soon as the upper end is freed from earth, be easily 

 taken out of the ground. 



I have never found in one of these nests more than one impreg- 

 nated female. Besides the winged ants, the eggs and the larvas, 

 there are found two kinds of laborers; of these one kind is distin- 

 guished by a truncated nose. 



Not in the nest but in the same piece of land, are found, in planting 

 corn, single white ants with disproportionately large heads and long 

 mandibles. 



The winged ants were stated by Dr. Hagen to belong to 

 Termes striatus, or perhaps to T. similis ; the imago is in too 

 bad a condition for accurate determination. The soldier with 

 truncated nose was figured by him as T. similis ; the soldier 

 with long mandibles, as T. cingulatus. 



~No description of white ants' nests like this has ever been 

 given before. 



Mr. S. H. Scudder remarked that in a recent examination 

 of the external genital armature of our diurnal Lepidoptera, 

 he had noticed the extraordinary fact that in the males of 



