Ill 



outwards and pushes through the bark and in so doing in Para 

 trees doubtless cuts into the laticiferous ducts and bleeds the tree 

 inwardly, but is the statement that their bodies are full of latex 

 correct. The insect lives on all kinds of trees, many containing no 

 latex or rtsin of any kind, and it would be odd if it had suddenly 

 developed into a devourer of latex, still more if it ate solid rubber. 

 It exudes from its mouth a milky substance like latex to defend itself 

 as other species do. Can this have been mistaken for latex? 



There is by no means always, if often, signs of withering in a 

 tree attacked before death. I have seen a large shrub of Mimosa 

 sepiaria apparently in the best of health, flowering and fruiting, 

 in which most of the twigs, with the boughs and trunk were hol- 

 lowed out and filled with mud. A Garcinia badly attacked and 

 finally killed showed also no signs of withering till it suddenly died. 

 Recently I saw an old Rambutan tree, nearly dead which had been 

 badly attacked at some time by the termite, but they had all left 

 it evidently long time, and had not killed it though, perhaps, had 

 hastened its death. 



To Mr. Stebbing'S question 8. Do the termites always work in 

 the dark? The answer is easy. Certainlv they do, unless com- 

 pelled accidentally to come into the light. If one removes, for 

 instance, a piece of the outer crust covering the tree trunk, and 

 put tar on the termites will come out and excrete a drop of liquid 

 mud (faeces) on the tar till they have covered it up again. 



In answer to question 12. There is good reason to believe that 

 the nest in the tree is connected with that in another. I have seen 

 a rubber tree attacked on the edge of a plantation and just opposite 

 a tree in the jungle which had also been killed by them. Appa- 

 rently the termites had tunnelled und*er the path, a fairly broad 

 one, to the rubber tree. It was difficult to verify this accurately 

 as every one who has studied the underground termites knows how 

 extremely difficult it is, if not impossible to trace the small irregular 

 passage they make from one spot to another. 



I doubt very much the real value of the possible parasites on the 

 termite as aids in combatting it. My experience has always been 

 that these parasites on social insects are far too scanty to make 

 any appreciable impression on the community, nor would it be 

 possible to increase their numbers. Further observations are wanted 

 on the habits of this pest and we shall hope that planters and others 

 will record any that they have an opportunity of making. 



H. N. R. 



FORESTRY IN INDIA. 



A few extract from the review of the Inspector- General of Forests 

 on the Forest Administration in British India for the year 1903-04, 

 may perhaps interest some of the readers of the Bulletin. I think 

 the vastness of the undertaking is made startlingly clear by the 

 figures here reproduced. 



