76 
white ant nests beneath the trees. Ridley then generalized as follows : 
“ Such action is what appears to be generally intended when it is 
said that a tree is killed by termites, the real cause, being perhaps 
obscure, is overlooked, and the termites who come to remove the dead 
tissue are credited with the original injury.” 
From this article it appears that the typical Termes gestroi 
habit of attacking live trees was not then known. It follows that 
in 1895 the insect was not a pest of major importance or such a sound 
observer as Ridley could not have failed to have noted this fact. 
It is unlikely that any of the termites obseiwed by Ridley in 
Singapore up to this time were Te7'mes gestroi, and he was probably 
quite correct in ascribing these particular attacks to diseased 
conditions. But I think it very likely that his generalization based 
upon observations of other species was subsequently taken by 
planters to apply to Termes gestroi, and developed into the 
pernicious idea that the trees lost through white ants would have 
died anyway, or at best would have been of little use. This 
fallacious theory of pre-disease has continued almost, if not quite, 
dowu to the present. 
In 1897, the Linnsean Society pnbljjfljed Haviland’s “ Observa- 
tions on Termites, with descriptions of New Species.” This is the 
standard scientific work on Malayan termites. Twenty species, 
including Termes gestroi, were described from British Malaya and a 
further considerable number from the Islands, but they were not 
treated from the economic side. Termes gestroi , however, received 
considerable attention because “ the species is one which deliberately 
attacks and destroys live trees.” The soldier, upon which classifica- 
tion is based, was described in detail, and shorter descriptions given 
of the workers and nymphs — that is, the winged individuals which 
develop into kings and queens. Unfortunately, Haviland did not 
obtain the adult king or queen, and from his failure to find them 
came to the conclusion that “ the same colony often possesses 
several nests, only one of which is inhabited by fertile individuals 
whose eggs and young are carried to the other nests.” My own 
experience does not bear out the whole of this. Subsidiary nests are 
made by Termes gestroi, in its feeding places but I have never seen 
eggs in these. Always the parent nest alone contains the eggs, 
and every nest containing eggs contains also the queen. Of the 
habits of Termes gestyoi, Haviland wrote : tL This species is 
remarkable for its habit of killing live trees. It encases tbe trunk 
for a distance of eight feet from the ground, with a thick crust 
of earth. Under cover of this crust it eats through weak spots 
in the tree to the heart of the wood, which it excavates, forming 
there a kind of nest built of wood fibre.” 
Next in chronological order is a further article by Ridley in 
May, 1900. A brief description of the soldier is followed by an 
