INSECT ENEMIES OF WESTERN FORESTS 163 
tudes. A large number of species are found in the Southwest and 
southern California, but only a few extend their range into the 
Pacific Northwest, and northern Rocky Mountain region. 
Termites are dirty-white, soft-bodied insects that live in colonies 
in the wood or in the ground and expose themselves to the light 
only when in the mature winged adult form. Each colony is made 
up of several specialized forms, such as workers, soldiers, king, and 
queen or else secondary sexual forms (fig. 82). They look like soft, 
fleshy ants but are distinguished from ants in having weakly chitin- 
ized body parts, except the head; and the winged forms have four 
wings of quite similar size and shape, while the true ants have 
hind wings smaller than the forewings. 
FIGURE 82.—One of the largest termites, Zootermopsis angusticollis Hagen, and examples 
of its work: A, Winged adult, x 1.5; B, second reproductive caste, X 1.5; C, worker, 
x 2; D, soldier, x 4; #, tunnels in wood. (Edmonston.) 
The social life of these insects is very interesting and quite com- 
plicated. Their excavations in wood are characteristically hollow, 
completely enclosed, more or less longitudinal cavities, in which 
some species (moist-wood and dry-wood forms) deposit peculiar, 
small, impressed excrement pellets. The destructive subterranean 
form deposits its feces in the form of liquid drops, which make 
only characteristic spottings in their galleries. 
The control of termites consists in isolating wood material from 
contact with the ground, or impregnating it with creosote or other 
termite-repellent materials. Very detailed methods of contro] have 
been devised, and it 1s recommended that the reader interested in 
this specialized subject consult one of the bulletins or publications 
devoted to the prevention of damage and control of these insects 
(56, 73, 75). 
