420 AUSTRALIAN TERMITIDM, 
the timbers of which there was introduced a South American 
species ( Eutermes tenuis, Hagen) common in Brazil. So 
destructive did they become that several Royal Commissions 
were appointed to consider the best methods of dealing with them. 
Melliss* states that they have destroyed over £60,000 worth of 
property in this island. 
Passing into Asia, none are recorded from the northern and 
central countries. Crichtonf says that in some parts of Arabia 
they are very destructive to young trees, which the Arabs pro- 
tect by coating the trunks with sheep dung. Two species are 
catalogued by Hagen from Schiraz, on the Persian Gulf, beyond 
which until we reach India is a blank. In the latter country, 
particularly in the southern provinces, white ants are numerous 
and destructive, though there are apparently not a great number 
of species among them. Termes taprobanes, one of the commonest, 
is very plentiful in Ceylon, also extending into Borneo, Sumatra 
and Java, all of those islands having several other species recorded 
from them. 
In the Philippine Islands they are well known. SeoaneJ gives 
an interesting account of a Spanish man-of-war which was com- 
pletely destroyed by Termes dives while lying in the Port of 
Ferrol. 
Doderlein§ has described a species from Japan. Mr. Knower, 
of the Johns Hopkins University, U.S.A., a well-known worker 
on the Termites, tells me that the common American species, 
Termes flavipes, is recorded from Japan, but I presume it has been 
introduced into the latter country. 
Peel|| has given an account of those from Assam, and Bomanis^f 
observed them and noted the habits of a species (probably Termes 
* Melliss, J. C. St. Helena, pp. 171-176, 1875. 
f A. Crichton. History of Arabia, Ancient and Modern. Edinb., 1883, 
p. 461. 
X V. L. Seoane. C.E. Ent. Belg. xx. pp. xiv.-xv. 1879. 
§ L. Doderlein. Mittb. Ges Ostasiens, iii. pp. 211-212. 1881. 
|| 8. E. Peel. Nature, xxvi., p. 343, 1882. 
IT R. Romanis. Entomologist, xvi. pp. 214-215. 
