1965] Nutting — Zootermopsis 121 
Table 2. Composition of two colonies of Zootermopsis laticeps. 
NYMPHS SOLDIERS 
Patagonia, Arizona; March, 1963 
no wing pads pre-alates small pads pigmented unpigmented 
10-13 mm. 10-12 mm. 7-10 mm. 4-7 mm. ca. 3 mm. 
552 200 162 103 103 22 
Hereford, Arizona ; November, 1963 
no wing pads 
10-13 mm. 7-10 mm. 5-7 mm. 4-5 mm. ca. 3 mm. 
232 200 431 155 40 26 
detritus in the larval burrows. The willow had also been invaded, 
apparently at the base of the broken branch, by a bracket-fungus 
[. Fomes igniarius (L. ex. Fr.) Kickx., kindly identified by Paul D. 
Keener of the Dept, of Plant Pathology] . The termites had restricted 
their galleries entirely to the column of softer, fungus-infected wood 
extending below into the base of the tree. It is probable that the 
cottonwood limb from Patagonia had been completely invaded by 
such a fungus but that the lack of contrast with any uninfected wood 
caused this point to go unnoticed. Unidentified Basidiomycetes and 
several other fungi have been isolated from colonies of Z. angusticollis 
and later experiments indicated that fungi play an essential role in its 
natural diet (Hendee, 1933, 1935). Only one obvious tunnel to the 
outside was found one foot below the crotch, its opening (sealed) in 
a deep furrow of the bark. 
A third colony was also located, but not taken, at Hereford in a 
medium-sized, three-trunked willow. Superficial galleries, containing 
a few large nymphs, were exposed by chopping into the partly healed 
stub of a branch three inches in diameter and three feet above the 
ground. The utility of a trail-laying mechanism (reported in Z. 
nevadensis: Stuart, 1961) may be envisioned in the existence of a 
colony inhabiting galleries as extensive and complex as those described 
above. 
Founding of the colony. A single incipient colony was found in the 
stub of a broken branch three inches in diameter and six feet from 
the ground on another small willow at Hereford. The de-alated king 
and queen had carved out a cell approximately 5 X 10 X 25 mm. in 
the sap-soaked, splintered wood at the base of the branch. The pair 
had probably flown between late June and early August, 1963, and 
by this date (Oct. 26) had produced a single nymph, three mm. long. 
This colony was maintained in a room varying between 55 0 and 70°F 
and six eggs were produced during early March, 1964, when obser- 
vations had to be discontinued. 
