THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 3103, 3 September 1913, Page 68

THE NATURALIST.

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN

NEW ZEALAND

(By James Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.) When turning over logs in old forest land in the Hawke s Bay district, Mr lay lor White has found large numbers of insects which he has n'ot been able to identify. Jie describes them as being a drab colour, or dirty white, with six legs, and a remarkable appearance. “ iney seem to have a tail of a white, curled, feathery material, reminding me .of Prince of Wales a feathers. The ‘feathers ’ are brittle, and easily become detached.” The insects are sluggish in their habits. He has seen them in exclusive colonies, and also associated with an'.s in the ants’ nests. Some are full grown, others minute in size, showing very little feathery adornment. The ants seemed to take no notice of these creatures, as they were busy carrying their own eggs or pupie lo saio places. Mr W. W. Smith, of New .Plymouth, recognises the insects as the “woolly aplns.” There are several species of them in New Zealand, but he cannot identify Mr White's from the description supplied. In habit, all are rhizophagus root-eating,—and often are found on roots where ants build their nests and galleries. The feathery material occurs in tufts on the posterior part of the insect, and is very fragile. Young ants obtain some sustenance from the secretions of the aphides. Mr Smith has seen the heads of many ants covered with the feathery material. An aphis may be seen moving sluggishly about in ants’ nests, as observed by Mr White; but when disturbed it leaps comparatively long distances in order to escape.

Mr Taylor White also reports the presence of white ants or termites, which in Hawke’s Bay make their nests in logs CSr in places where a living pine tree has been damaged. In describing these, he says: “To my surprise I found in the nests or runs of the white ants dark winged insects, which lead me to suppose that the founder of a nest, in the first instance, is black, not white. In the white colonies, also, there are larger creatures, nearly £in long. Their abdomens arc white, but their fore parts and heads are a light nut colour. They have immense jaws, like a pair of nippers. 1 am at a loss to understand the life-history of these white ants, as when a nest is broken open the inhabitants are in no flurry or haste to escape.” Mr Smith explains that the different forms ot insects found by Mr White in the nests are modified forms of white ants. As to the ants not being in a hurry to escape, Mr Smith states that this condition is dependent upon the season of the year' and the weather, ants, like other insects, being soemwhat inactive on cold days. White ants, by the way, should dissociated in the mind from true ants. They are separated by whole orders of insects. White ants —-it is better to call them by their proper name, termites —belong to the order Neuroptera, which includes the dragon-flies, caddis-flies, and mayflies, and “ death-watches.” True ants belong to the order Hymenoptera, which includes bees and wasps and their allies. Ihe resemblance between termites and afits is more in regard to intelligence and instinct than structure. It is not unusual to find in a termitarium, as a termite’s nest is called, the different forms of termites, which puzzled Mr White. Ihe colony consists of a king, a queen, workers, and soldiers. The insects with the formidable mandibles which attracted Mr White’s attention in the Hawke’s Bay termitarium were the soldiers of those colonies. The soldiers protect the general interests of the colony, and the woikeis attend to the young and discharge most of the other duties in the termitarium.

The, term white ants is inapplicable to termites also because they are not al'tajs white. The late Captain F. W. Hutton described three species of termites in New Zealand belonging to two genera. One genus, Calotermes, is found in warm climates in both hemispheres, but the other, Stolotermes. is recorded in only Tasmania and New Zealand. In .the former genus there are two species. One of these, named in honour of Major Broun, is found in the Auckland district.- It is generally of a dark reddish-brown colour, the wings are brown —fuscous, to be quite correct —and the horny divisions in the wings are chocolate brown. The soldiers of the species have yellowish heads with bright yellow antennae, and the workers have pale yellow heads and dull white bodies. The general colour of the other species, Insularis, is bright brownish or yellowish red —ferruginous—and the divisions on the wings are light brownishyellow. There seems to be no record of

the particular part of New Zealand in which this species has occurred. The only species of the other genus, Stolotermes ruficeps, has been found in both the Auckland and the Wellington districts. Its general colour is dark reddish-brown, but the under surface is much brighter; the soldiers. have bright yellow heads, the upper surface of the thorax is brownish yellow, and the rest of the body is dull white.

The literature of the termites, if brought together, would form quite a library, but the wonderful records of these creatures’ doings made by Bates in “The Naturalist on the Amazons” 50 years ago has never been surpassed. The work has been included in the Universal Library, and is cheap. In trying to clear up obscure points in the termites’ history, Bates examined several hundred colonies at Santarem, at the junction of the Amazon and the Tapajos. Whenever a colony was disturbed, tile, workers at first were the only members of the community seen. They quick! v disappeared through the endless ramified galleries in the termitarium, and then the soldiers made their appearance. Bates says; “I was always amused at the pugnacity displayed, when in making a hole in the earthy cemented archway of their covered roads, a host of these little fellows mounted the breach to cover the retreat of the workers. The edges of the rupture bristled with their armed heads as the courageous warriors ranged themselves in compact line around them. They atacked fiercely any intruding object, and as fast as their front ranks were destroyed others filled up their places. When their jaws closed in my flesh, they suffered themselves to bo torn in pieces rather than loosen their hold. It might be said that this instinct is rather a cause of their ruin than a protection when the colony is attacked by the well-known enemy of termites. the ant-bear; but it is the soldiers only which attach themselves to the long, worm-like tongue of this animal, and the workers, on whom the prosperity of the young brood immediately depends, are left for the most part unharmed. I always found, on thrusting my finger into a mixed crowd of termites, that the soldiers only fastened upon it. Thus the fighting caste, do in the end serve to protect the species by sacrificing themselves for its good. A family of termites consists of. workers as the majority, of soldiers, and of the king and queen These are the constant occupants of a completed termitarium. The royal couple are the father and mother of the colony, and are always kept together closely guarded by a detachment of workers in a large chamber in the very heart of the hive, surrounded by much stronger walls than the other cells. The queen, when in her chamber, is always found enormously distended with eggs, which, as fast as they come forth, are conveyed by a relay of workers in their mouths from the royal chamber to the minor cells dispersed throughout the hive.’’