224 The Philippine Journal of Science ms 
and fruit. Tanner 4 reports that the ants work these fragments 
with their mouth parts and then place them in position. 
The termite combs, from Manila and Los Banos, (Plate III, 
fig. 2, and Plate IV, fig. 1) lie loosely on the floor of the larger 
cavities or chambers of the nest. They are brown, either flat 
or convexo-concave, about 2 centimeters thick and from a few 
to many centimeters in diameter. The passages in the combs 
are either rounded or elongated and run from the top to the 
bottom of the comb. They are frequently simple or a few may 
be connected together. 
In the following discussion, the different fungi found on the 
termite combs in the vicinity of Manila and Los Banos, will be 
treated separately. 
THE “CONIDIAL” SPHERE ( AEGERITA DUTHEI BERK.) 
The termite combs in the vicinity of Manila and Los Banos 
are impregnated with fungus hyphae and their surfaces are 
thickly dotted with rounded fungoid bodies on short stalks 
(Plate IV, fig. 1). These appear to be entirely similar to those 
described from Ceylon by Petch and are probably eaten by the 
termites, as what seem to be spores from these can be found 
inside the young termites. 
Holtermann, 5 who studied the termites of India and Malaya, 
described these white, stalked, spherical bodies which occurred on 
the mycelium of the termite combs. Holtermann and Doflein 6 
both found that these were eaten by the termites. Doflein 
suggests that these bodies form the food of all the larvae and 
the sexual individuals, while at a certain stage the soldiers and 
workers adopt another kind of food. The geographic distribu- 
tion of these spheres is summarized by Petch 7 as follows : 
Holtermann regarded these spheres as identical in all the nests he 
examined, whether in Ceylon, Java, Singapore, or Borneo. It is, I think, 
clear from the description and figures of the Madagascar species that the 
latter is identical with that found in Ceylon; and from Berkeley’s figures 
the Ceylon species is certainly the same as that found in India. Fur- 
thermore, Tragardh’s description and figures of the fungus on the combs 
of T. vulgaris in the Sudan agree well with the Ceylon species. I have 
not been able to find any reference, in the literature at my disposal, to 
4 Tanner, J. E., Oecodema cephalotes, the parasol or leaf-cutting ant, 
Trinidad Field Nat. Club 1 (1892) 68-69. 
6 Holtermann, C., Botanische Untersuchungen (1899) 411-420. 
* Doflein, F., Die Pilzkulturen der Termiten, Verhandl. Deutsch. Zool 
Gesellschaft (1905) 140-149. 
’ Petch, T., Termite fungi : A resume, Ann. Bot. Gard. Peradeniya 5 
(1913) 303-341. 
