White Ants Research Articles

XVIII. Notes on insects apparently of the genus Margarodes, Lansd.‐Guilding, stated to occur abundantly in the nests of White Ants, and also of true Ants, in certain Western Districts of the Cape Colony

XVIII. <i>Notes on insects apparently of the genus</i> Margarodes, <i>Lansd.‐Guilding, stated to occur abundantly in the nests of White Ants, and also of true Ants, in certain Western Districts of the Cape Colony</i>

WHITE ANTS DESTROYING LIVING TREES AND CHANGING THF FOLIAGE, IN CAMBRIDGE, MASS

The common white ant, Termes flavipes, destroys dead wood, stumps of trees and timber, just as does its nearest relative, T. lucifugus, in Europe. Of the latter species some cases are reported where living pines and oaks have been destroyed in the South of France. For T. flavipes, only one case is known, in which living grape vines in a hot house in Salem were injured. (S. H. Scudder. Proc. Boston, N. H. S., vol. 7, p. 287). Now the earth in the hot houses here in Cambridge is largely infested by white ants, but as far as I know, no destruction of plants has been observed. I was very much interested by the information from Mr. F. W. Putnam that in a garden in Irwing street living maples were largely infested by white ants. The evidence of the truth of this information was apparent by the first glance at the trees.

XLI.—Notes on the Infusorial parasites of the Tasmanian white ant

It was with much interest that I discovered soon after my arrival in Tasmania, that a species of White Ant (specific name at present undetermined) abounds in this colony, feeding after the manner of the North-American type upon decaying timber, and having its intestine similarly laden with parasitic Infusoria. No specific description of these Infusoria has been published up to the present date, and it is only so recently as the year 1881, that a detailed account, with illustrations, of the analagous parasites of the American White Ant (Termes flavipes), has been contributed by Dr. Joseph Leidy to the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. William Saville-Kent, F.L.S., F.Z.S., was Superintendent and Inspector of Fisheries, Tasmania.

The Fossil White Ants of Colorado

The Fossil White Ants of Colorado

White Ants' Nests

I OBSERVE in NATURE, vol. xxvi. p. 72, from line 13 to 35 inclusive, some remarks regarding the composition of the inner of the two distinct structures composing an ant hill, and that though the composition of the inner parts was chemically the same as wood, it was structureless, and its origin not known or understood.

Sound-producing Ants

WITH reference to a remark of Mr. S. E. Peal's (NATURE, vol. xxiv. p. 484) to the effect that white ants emit sounds, but not in rhythm, I have to observe that I have frequently heard white ants emit sounds with the most perfect rhythm, when, in the years 1857–1860, I was engaged in the Geological Survey of Trichinopoly, &c. On several occasions it happened that my tent was pitched on a piece of ground infested with white ants, and it was the custom of my servants to spread a thin layer of straw beneath the satrinji or cotton carpet that was laid on the tent floor. Often, when sitting in the tent in the quiet of the evening, I have heard the white ants at work in the straw, emitting perfectly rhythmical waves of sound at intervals of about a second, or perhaps rather more. If they were disturbed by raising the satrinji, the sounds ceased: to be resumed however after a minute or two, when all was quiet again.

Sound-producing Ants

REFERRING to Mr. Blanford's letter in NATURE, vol. xxv. p. 32; whilst lying awake early one morning before the servants were stirring, when camped in the Deccan at the present small station of Chota or Chick-Soogoor, on the G.I.P. Railway, during the winter of 1868–69, I beard a sound, as Mr. Blanford suggests, repeated at regular intervals of about a second. It sounded as though the wall of the tent was being struck by a light fringe along one side; but noticing that the air was perfectly still, I listened for some minutes, wondering what it was and trying to fix the locality. I got out of bed cautiously and looked out; the whole of one side of the tent for a height of two feet was covered with white ants so thickly that at the first glance I thought the wall was covered with a grey-reddish mud to this height. I was trying to make out how the sound could be produced, when it stopped suddenly, the ants evidently having become aware of my presence; they then began to clear off the wall rapidly, and in a few moments it had become white again. They had not attacked the cotton wall. On looking at the ground round the tent I found their runs extending from a tamarind tope, the nearest trees of which were about 50 feet away. The runs were built in the usual way of red Deccan soil, there were great numbers of them, varying in width from the thickness of twine to 21/2) inches, often crossing each other diagonally. No doubt the ants had found the tent in the evening, and were prepared to make a morning meal of a portion of it, when I disturbed them on looking out. The impression on my mind at the time was that the whole body of ants struck the tent wall at the same time with their heads, and that it was very extraordinary that they all stopped at once; there were no dropping shots, it was an instantaneous cessation along the whole line. The tent, which was a double one, was at least 30 feet long, and the ants possibly extended round the ends.

On a remarkable fossil Orthopterous Insect from the Coal-measures of Scotland

The clay-ironstone of Coalbrook Dale, Shropshire, has already yielded the wing of one most interesting form of fossil locust, the Gryllacris (Corydalis) Brongniarti (Pl. IX. fig. 2), figured and described in Mantell's ‘Medals of Creation,’ in Murchison's ‘Siluria’ 4th edition, 1867, p. 300, woodcut 80, and, lastly, in the Geol. Mag. 1874, new series. Dec. ii. vol. i. pl. xiv. fig. 3; whilst the Coal-measures of Saarhruck and of Westphalia have yielded fossil remains of a Gryllacris and seven species of Blattinæ , or cockroaches, 4 Termites (white ants), 1 Acridites , 3 species of the Neuropterous genus Dictyoneura ; and from those of Grundy co., Illinois, U. S. A., 3 species of the genus Miamia , 1 of Mylacris , 1 of Megathentomum , 3 species of Euphemerites , and 1 doubtful species of Mantis have been described by Mr. S. H. Scudder, and from the Coal-measures of Cape Breton the genus Haplophlebium by the same author. Mr. Scudder has likewise described seven genera from more or less fragmentary remains in the Devonian rocks of New Brunswick. Dr. Anton Dohrn (Director of the Zoological Station at Naples) has described a new and most remarkable Neuropterous insect from the Permian (Todtliegende) of Birkenfeld, which he has named Eugereon Bœckingii , and regards as possibly belonging to an extinct order ( Dictyoptera ). It has been my good fortune during the past year to have placed in my hands, through the kindness of Edward Charlesworth, Esq., F.G.S., a most interesting fossil insect from the Coal-measures of Scotland. The insect in question

IV. Remarks on a Substance called “Puttoo Manga,” found in the White Ants' Nests in Travancore

IV. Remarks on a Substance called “Puttoo Manga,” found in the White Ants' Nests in Travancore

XVIII. Characters of Embia, a Genus of Insects allied to the White Ants (Termites); with Descriptions of the Species of which it is composed.

Journal Article XVIII. Characters of Embia, a Genus of Insects allied to the White Ants (Termites); with Descriptions of the Species of which it is composed Get access J. O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S. J. O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume os-17, Issue 3, July 1836, Pages 369–374, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8339.1834.tb00029.x Published: 09 April 2009 Article history Accepted: 18 July 2008 Published: 09 April 2009

Some account of the termites, which are found in Africa and other hot climates. In a letter from Mr. Henry Smeathman, of Clement's Inn, to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. P. R. S

Sir, Of a great many curious parts of the creation I met with on my travels in that almost unknown district of Africa called Guinea, the TERMITES, which by most travellers have been called WHITE ANTS, seemed to me on many accounts most worth of that exact and minute attention which I have bestowed upon them. The amazingly great and sudden mischief they frequently do to the property of people in tropical climates, makes them well known and greatly feared by the inhabitants.