172 
Psyche 
[March 
Table 1. Measurements of shots or threads fired by four soldiers of 
T enuirostritermes tenuirostris at fixed, living ants in the laboratory. 
Soldier 
Number 
Shot 
Number 
Av. Diameter 
(mm) 
Length 
(mm) 
Volume 
(mm 3 ) 
1 
1 
0.020 
19.650 
0.0062 
2 
0.015 
11.425 
0.0020 
3 
0.015 
10.475 
0.0019 
4 
0.015 
7.550 
0.0013 
5 
0.015 
5.100 
0.0009 
6 
0.015 
2.500 
0.0004 
2 
1 
0.020 
9.025 
0.0028 
2 
0.020 
7.300 
0.0023 
3 
1 
0.020 
7.200* 
0.0023 
2 
0.020 
4.625 
0.0015 
3 
0.020 
1.725 
0.0005 
4 
1 
* 
2 
0.020 
0.900 
0.0003 
* Shot entirely on ant and 
not traceable, or 
partly on ant and 
measurement 
only approximate. 
soldier’s shot by throwing a bight, or even one or more loops, in the 
thread (Fig. i). Attacks by as many as six soldiers from different 
directions were invariably fatal to an ant. Soldiers often examined 
victims with their antennae for up to a minute, occasionally becoming 
temporarily entangled themselves. They were never seen to wipe the 
nasus on the substrate after any of this activity. 
In unstaged encounters, soldiers usually fired but once at an ant; 
however, by carefully prodding and exciting the fixed ants, individual 
soldiers were induced to fire from one to six additional shots at them. 
Data on the shots recorded on and near four such ants are summar- 
ized in Table i. It was impossible to determine the order of shots 
fired by individual soldiers, but those of greater diameter and length 
are probably the ones fired at or near the beginning of an encounter. 
Longer shots often began with a series of droplets, and occasionally 
contained short breaks in the thread. It would have been interesting 
to determine what percent of their glandular holding capacity had 
been spent in these individuals, but drought conditions during seasons 
of activity have since prevented further collections. 
Although the ant victims were physically immobilized within a 
few seconds, they also appeared to be adversely affected by some of the 
chemical components of the soldier secretion, probably the terpenes. 
