TEKMITES IN THE UNITED STATES. 13 
tubes of small diameter, constructed of earth and excrement (PL 
III). M. Chrisman has found these termites in Arizona under simi- 
lar coverings at the base of mesquite stumps, fallen limbs, twigs, 
etc. ; always on the dry wood, but not in cells in the wood, apparently 
eating only the outside. Many other termites occur in North and 
Central America. 
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF TERMITES IN THE UNITED STATES. 
While termites damage a great variety of wooden structures, stored 
books, documents, paper, and other material, as well as occasionally 
injuring or killing living trees, shrubs, and growing crops, the prin- 
cipal and most serious damage is to foundation timbers and the wood- 
work of buildings occupied by man and the contents or material 
stored therein. Similar damage to other construction timber in con- 
tact with the ground is considerable in the Southern States. Appar- 
ently, it is only occasionally that these insects attack living trees and 
shrubs, growing crops, or other vegetation, and then only because 
the land has been recently cleared and there is much decaying wood 
or humus in the soil; or, according to C. L. Marlatt, of the Bureau 
of Entomology, in the case of corn in the prairie region of Kansas, 
because the insects are present in enormous numbers and have been 
breeding in the heavily sodded soil, where they feed on the roots of 
the vegetation. Sometimes this injury to growing corn is due also 
to the method of plowing under old stubble. 
Hence, in the following account of general damage to a great 
variety of stored material and products, as well as living crops, it 
should be borne in mind that such damage is usually occasional, and 
then only local and not in general a serious problem. 
DAMAGE TO BUILDINGS AND OTHER STRUCTURES OF WOOD. 
Damage to foundation timbers, flooring in basements, and other 
woodwork of dwellings occupied by man, as well as to other buildings, 
is common and occasionally serious in the eastern and southern 
portions of the United States, especially in the South Atlantic and 
Gulf States. Injury of this type has been recorded as occurring in 
large cities, 1 as well as in rural regions, as far north as Manchester, 
N. H., and the shores of the Great Lakes (Benton Harbor, Mich.). 
1 Records in the correspondence files of the Bureau of Entomology and branch of Forest 
Insect Investigations include Benton Harbor, Mich., Manchester, N. H., Boston, Mass., 
New York, N. Y., Atlantic City, N. J., Philadelphia, Pa., Wilmington, Del., Baltimore] 
Md., Washington, D. C, Wheeling, W. Va., Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Dayton, Ohio, 
Indianapolis, Jeffersonville, and South Bend, Ind., Cazenovia, 111., St. Louis, Mo., Char- 
lotte, N. C, Charleston and Spartanburg, S. C, Louisville and Franklin, Ky., Memphis, 
Tenn., Augusta and Savannah, Ga., Montgomery and Birmingham, Ala., Vicksburg, Miss., 
Jacksonville, Miami, and St. Augustine, Fla., New Orleans and New Iberia, La., Beaumont,' 
Dallas, and San Diego, Tex., Little Rock and Van Buren, Ark., Oklahoma City and 
Wewoka, Okla., Manhattan, Kans., Colorado Springs, Colo., Salt Lake City, Utah, and 
localities in southern California. 
