OBSERVATIONS ON THE NESTING SITE AND 
BIOLOGY OF THE ARIZONA DAMP-WOOD TERMITE 
ZOOTERMOPSIS LATICEPS (BANKS) 
( HODOTERMITIDAE ) 1 
By W. L. Nutting 
Department of Entomology, University of Arizona 
The genus Zootermopsis includes the largest termites to be found 
in the United States. It contains but three species: angusticollis, the 
common damp-wood (or light-colored, rotten-wood) termite, ranging 
from southern British Columbia to northern Baja California and 
most abundant in the more humid coastal areas; nevadensis , the small 
(or dark-colored) damp-wood termite, roughly coextensive with the 
former but generally preferring cooler, drier areas and extending 
farther inland to western Montana; and laticeps, the Arizona damp- 
wood termite, recorded from southeastern Arizona and southwestern 
New Mexico (Castle, 1934). Because of its large size and relatively 
easy availability in logs and stumps, angusticollis has become moderate- 
ly well known and has proved a useful laboratory animal in a wide 
variety of studies (Snyder, 1956, 1961). To a lesser extent this is 
true for nevadensis. In contrast, no new biological information has 
appeared on laticeps since the early contributions by Townsend 
(1893), Banks (1906) and Banks and Snyder (1920). Although it 
is by far the largest, with soldiers 16 to 22 mm. long and alates 25 
to 30 mm. over all, it has remained the least known of the three. 
The following account summarizes the data on 27 collections of 
the alates of this spectacular termite made by various members, 
students and friends of the Department of Entomology at the Uni- 
versity of Arizona, mainly during the last ten years. It also includes 
information gathered on four colonies which were located by the 
author after several years of sporadic but diligent searching. When 
it is realized that this termite stages its flights during the night and 
that it colonizes living, often very large, trees, its rarity becomes 
more understandable. It is thus not likely to be taken by the casual 
collector or without considerable effort. 
Distribution. The collections of alates, made under lights and 
in light traps (both white and ultra violet) have considerably 
broadened the range of the species within the state of Arizona (Fig. 
Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station Journal, Article No. 967 . 
Manuscript received by the editor February 19, 1965. 
