483 



found containing immature winged forms and eggs, but careful 

 search failed to reveal anything in the nature of a royal cell, 

 which in all probability is not built by this species. The vast 

 majority of nests contain merely soldiers and workers, and I 

 concur with Dr. Haviland in thinking that it is extremely proba- 

 ble that the greater number of communities are without king or 

 queen and are merely offshoots from some central nest, from 

 which immature forms, and possibly eggs, are conveyed. Under 

 conditions with which we are at present unfamiliar, it is not 

 unlikely that sexually active males and females may be produced 

 by post-metamorphic changes. The termitaria or nests are con- 

 tained within the trunks of the trees attacked and are formed of 

 narrow labyrinthine chambers composed of woody and earthy 

 matter that has passed through the alimentary canal of the in- 

 sects, the whole of the interior of the tree being more or less 

 filled up with this material, which replaces the wood as it is eaten 

 away. Judging from the state of development of the immature 

 winged forms above referred to, it is probable that the swarming 

 season, like that of the other species of termites in this country, 

 is from September to Christmas, and it is before and during this 

 period that repressive measures should be most energetically 

 carried out. It appears too, that on any given estate, the centres 

 of attack are comparatively few in number, and there is therefore 

 the more reason to believe that if vigorous preventive measures 

 are persevered in for a considerable time, the pest will gradually 

 abate. 



XIV. — Natural Enemies of Termites. 



The most important enemies of termites are undoubtedly the 

 true ants, which may often be seen carrying off the workers to 

 their own nests. Three specially active species are the keringa 

 (Oecophylla smaragdina) a small red species of Camponotus often 

 seen running about the trunks of the rubber, and a very long- 

 legged, slender black species, also probably a Camponotus, whose 

 nests are often found inside the termitaria, and seem to be regularly 

 provisioned with larval white ants. Of the vertebrates, bears are 

 reputed to occasionally break open the larger mounds, and I have 

 seen the stomach of a binturong crammed with a small jungle- 

 dwelling species. Birds of many varieties gorge themselves with 

 the winged forms during swarming. Frogs and toads, including 

 Megalophrys nasuta, Bufo melanostictus and Callula pulchra, also 

 live largely on termites. 



None of those enemies, however, could be made any practical 

 use of, but it might be possible to utilise the services of a species 

 of South African mongoose, Herpestes badius, subsp. gracilis, 

 which experiment* has shown to feed almost entirely on white 

 ants. Ventures in acclimatisation, however, are always hazardous, 

 and often end in the most unlooked for and unwelcome results. 



* Report of the Hope Professor of Zoology, Oxford 1903, p. 53. 



