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Book-lice and Their Allies — Part 2

In the United States there exist comparatively few species, and only one which has a northward range into the territory occupied by most of the readers of this book. This is Termes flavipes Koll. It is probably a true American species but was accidentally introduced into Europe many years ago. It destroyed the imperial greenhouses at Schonbron, near Vienna, so that they were replaced by houses with iron frames. Another species which is widely distributed in the United States, but which does not seem to be especially common, is also found in Europe and is one of the most abundant and destructive termites found there. This is Termes lucifugus Rossi. It has not yet been definitely determined whether this insect is a native of Europe or of America. It occurs in all of the Mediterranean countries in Europe and is found in Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Southern California, and perhaps elsewhere. Another species, known as Termes tubiformans Buckley, is a form of curious habits occurring in Texas, in the spring, beneath and within patches of cow-dung, and after midsummer making tubes around grass stems and the stems of other plants, nesting probably deep in the ground. Still another Texas form, known as Eutermes nigriceps Haldeman, is a small species which constructs nests, apparently of cow dung, which are attached to the trunks of trees. Buckley wrote of this form, "It was about sunset on the 22d of October, 1860, when I first saw this species in a field, where both workers and nasuti were carrying home seeds of grasses and weeds. They marched in dense columns along pathways leading to a hole near the base of a stump, into which they entered. * * * They dwell in the ground where they have rooms, seldom more than one to two inches long, connected by tunnels. * * * After rains--which are of rare occurrence in that climate--they make semi-cylindrical tubes, which lie on the ground with a length of from three to six inches. These arched ways sometimes intercept each other, being connected with chambers; but they rarely work by day above the surface and never in bright sunshine."

Of the commonest of our species, Termes flavipes, it is greatly to be regretted that no thoroughly good account of its life history has been published. The true queen, in fact, has never been found, unless it should turn out that a large queen found two or three years ago by Mr. H. G. Hubbard in the mountains in southern Arizona should belong to this species. In the Northern States its nests are to be found under almost any decaying log, and, although many entomologists have examined these nests, they have never found the queen. From Baltimore southward, and perhaps even a little farther north, this insect becomes a serious pest in houses, particularly in old houses which are rather damp. They make their nests in old beams, such as the main floor joists, and construct innumerable tunnels, running usually with the grain, so that, although a great deal of the substance of the wood is devoured, the main longitudinal fibers support the building structure for a long time; in fact, their presence in many cases would not be noticed except for the spring flight of the winged males and females. Quite recently a handsome private residence in the city of Baltimore was found to have its timbers on the first floor reduced almost to shells by the workers of this insect. Further south, not only the buildings, but even furniture is destroyed by them in the same way. They seem especially fond of paper, and Forbes has recorded the fact that a collection of books and papers of the state of Illinois was completely ruined by them. A school library in South Carolina, which had been left closed for the summer, was found, on being opened in the autumn, to be completely eaten out and rendered valueless. The work of these insects was brought home strongly to the writer on one occasion when a lot of records and documents stored in a vault in the Department of Agriculture was found to be mined and ruined by them; and again, the floor of one of the largest sections of the United States National Museum was annually undermined and weakened until it was torn up and replaced with cement. Whenever an old beam is found to have been hollowed out, even if no insects are present, it can readily be identified as the work of termites by the fact that all of the galleries are plastered with a brownish, mortar-like substance composed of excrement, from which, apparently, all nourishing food has been taken. In Florida this insect is often the cause of great damage to orange trees, working around the crown and in the roots of trees, and altogether it is a thoroughly bad character.