INSECT ENEMIES OF EASTERN FORESTS S7 
mature in a year; the winged adults do not appear in the colony until 
after 2 years. Nonsubterranean termites have no workers. — 
In well-established colonies, in addition to the first form of winged, 
or macropterous adults, workers, and soldiers, young of a second form. 
brachypterous (provided only with wing pads), and a third form. 
apterous (wingless reproductive adults) also appear. These forms, 
however, never become parent adults in their original colony unless 
there is an accident to the functioning first reproductive forms. A 
smal] number of males are associated with a large number of females, 
and, although the queens of this type are smaller, in the aggregate their 
egg-laying powers are greater than that of queens developing from 
the winged adults. 
Termites are scavengers in the forest and are beneficial in convert- 
ing fallen logs and stumps into humus. Man, by placing suitable 
woodwork at their disposal, has invited termites to seek shelter and 
food in his structures. There has been no sudden invasion across 
this country by termites, but rather termites are widely distributed 
and attack any suitable wood material when favorable conditions 
permit. Termites inhabit temperate as well as tropical regions. 
The food of termites is principally the cellulose of wood, primarily 
dead wood, although living vegetation is occasionally attacked in this 
country. ‘Termites will attack all kinds of wood, but certain chemical 
extractives in the close-grained heartwood of California redwood, 
tidewater red baldcypress, and pitchy pine render these woods re- 
sistant to termite attack when they are used above ground, where they 
do not leach out. Hardness is no deterrent. Most woodboring ter- 
mites contain low forms of life, especially protozoa, in their intestines. 
By means of enzymes they digest the cellulose for the termites. This 
is not true of many of the higher, specialized termites. No native 
termites construct large, conspicuous, concentrated nests, but all species 
in the East lead concealed lives in colonies of more or less disconnected 
ramifications and constantly changing site. 
There are three types of termites in the Eastern States, the nonsub- 
terranean, or damp-wood, the dry-wood (including powder-post ter- 
mites), and the subterranean. So far as damage to the woodwork of 
buildings is concerned, damage by the damp-wood termites is con- 
fined entirely to southern Florida. Except for preferring moist wood, 
the habits of the damp-wood termites are similar to those of the dry- 
wood type. Damage by dry-wood termites is also limited, but can 
be locally serious. The subterranean termites make up the group that 
does practically all the serious damage to buildings and their contents. 
The dry-wood termites fly directly to the woodwork of buildings 
and attack the wood through crevices or bore directly into it. They 
do not live in the earth and do not attack wood indirectly from the 
earth, nor do they require the presence of moisture. Their galleries 
are longitudinal chambers cut across the grain of the wood, and the 
excrement is in small impressed pellets. No worker caste is present, 
and the nymphs, or young, perform the duties of workers. 
Subterranean termites are ground-living forms that attack wood 
indirectly from the earth and require much moisture. They attain 
this moisture from the earth, to and from which they constantly come 
and go in galleries through wood or through earthlike shelter tubes. 
Their galleries are, so-to-speak, “air-conditioned,” and subterranean 
