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ISOPTERA 171
structive Australian species which constructs large dome-like termitaria up to
6 ft. high. The common name comes from the white discharge of the fontanel
of the soldiers.
Heterotermes tenuis (Hagen) is one of the species most injurious to wooden
structures in the West Indies, Mexico, Central America, and northern South
America. H. aureus Snyder occurs in California, Arizona, and Mexico and is
very destructive in the last two regions.
Family TERMITIDlE 1 (Westwood 1840) Light 1921 (Ter-mit-i-dce, from the
Latin termes, a woodworm or termite).
A large family of tropical and subterranean species in which most of the
soldiers have the head extended into a rostrum from which the fluid secretion
may be extruded in tenacious threads to repel and entangle enemies. The
anterior wing scale is small, the wings are partly reticulated, and the membrane
and margins are somewhat hairy. The fontanel is present, and the pronotum of
the soldier is saddle-like in shape. These species lack the protozoan fauna in
the digestive tract. This is the dominant family of the order and has some 100
genera and 1,200 species.
In the genus Amitermes Silvestri the nasute soldiers have large sickle-shaped
or hook-like and toothed mandibles.
The meridional or magnetic termite, Amitermes meridionalis (Froggatt), in
Australia, erects narrow, earthern, wall-like or wedge-shaped mounds from
3 to 12 ft. high and almost as long, with the narrow ends facing north and
south and the sides east and west.
The genus Nasutitermes Banks (Eutermes Heer) is a large and important one.
Nasutitermes ext'tiosus (Hill), one of a number of mound-building species in
Australia, erects pillar-like mounds up to 18 ft. in height. Concerning the occupants
of a small mound 172 ft. high and 4 ft. wide at the base, the following
interesting facts have been assembled: 2
Total population
Workers .
Soldiers .
Nymphs .
Humidity. .
Temperature .
. exceeded
relatively high
1,800,000
1,560,000
200,000
40,000
95%
Nasutitermes costalis Holmgren is common and abundant in the West Indies,
Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. It builds nigger-head
nests on the trunks and larger branches of trees and on posts and poles and
sometimes injures sugar cane. The nasute soldiers have very pointed heads
and the alates fly by day.
1 See footnote I, page 168.
• Report of the Council of Science and Industrial Research oj Australia, Vol. 9, 193&.