294 
Journal of Agricultural Research voi.xxvi, no. 7 
and runways are shown in Plates 1 and 2. The nests are generally 
more or less ovoid in shape, the largest one found being 1 y 2 feet long 
by 1 foot in diameter. 
The nest and runways are made of a sort of papier-mach6 consisting 
of finely digested wood, earth, and other substances that have passed 
through the alimentary tracts of the workers and are cemented into 
position as they are excreted. The nests and runways are quite tough 
and are practically waterproof. When either is broken the character¬ 
istic brown-headed, long-nosed nasuti (soldiers) and the lighter colored 
workers rush forth to repair the damage. The carton nests, however, 
are not always built, nor does the species always reach its feeding grounds 
by means of external runways, for in Panama City this species has been 
found tunnelling the heartwood of trees. 
Nasutitermes cornigera and N. ephratae are of the greatest economic 
importance in this region, for they do not confine their attacks to trees, 
posts, and stumps out of doors, but are especially destructive to furniture 
and the woodwork of buildings. Access to a building is gained from a 
parent out-of-door nest by means of the runways built up over walls or 
up the supports on which the building rests; in fact, there are few wooden 
houses or buildings in the Canal Zone that do not show traces of such 
tunnels. Once in the building, carton nests such as are shown in 
Plate 3, A, B, are constructed between the walls or on the joists and 
studdings. 
There are records of this species working in wood at the Washington 
Hotel, Colon, Republic of Panama, in tunnels on a storehouse at Gamboa, 
Canal Zone, and in a newel post at the Hotel Tivoli, Ancon, Canal Zone. 
At Ancon Hospital, N. cornigera tunnelled coffins made of poplar wood 
and veneered with oak, stored under the building ; 7 out of 19 coffins were 
infested, 3 being badly damaged. 
N. cornigera has also been found at Balboa, Canal Zone, tunnelling 
pieces of dead tree limbs on which orchids were growing. This indicates 
a method by which the species might be distributed in the absence of 
strict plant quarantine regulations; in fact, Nasutitermes morio Latr. 
has been intercepted coming into the United States from Trinidad in just 
such a manner, by inspectors of the Federal Horticultural Board at New 
York City. 
On July 12, 1920, Zetek and Molino collected workers and nasuti of 
Nasutitermes cornigera in covered runways on cacao trees at the Las 
Cascades Cacao Plantation, Canal Zone. There was hardly a cacao 
tree on the plantation which did not have runways of these termites on 
the trunk. The manager stated that chickens eat the termites and that 
he expected to use them as controls. An ant, Azteca sp., 11 was present 
with the termites. 
On January 31, 1920, Mr. Zetek found workers and nasuti of Nasuti¬ 
termes cornigera on another cacao plantation at Las Cascades. In this 
lot were a large number of young reproductive types which might have 
been of the second form, with short wing pads and slight grayish pigment 
on the wing pads and other parts of the body. The eyes were pinkish. 
If of this type, it is believed this is the first record of the occurrence of 
second-form, reproductive individuals in the genus Nasutitermes. An 
ant, Dolichoderus ( Inonacis ) bispinosus Oliv. 11 was present with the 
termites. 
n Determined by W. M. Mann of the Bureau of Entomology. 
