. African invertebrates : a journal of biodiversity research. Invertebrates -- Africa; Biological diversity -- Africa; Biological diversity. OBSERVATIONS ON SOME SOUTH AFRICAN TERMITES. 879 cliaracter after years of occupation by successive colonies of this and perhaps other termites. The thickets in Pretoria are composed of several varieties of acacias (Acacia horrida, robusta, and caffra predoniinating"), associated with them are other thorny plants, the more usual kinds being G3Mn nosporia buxifolia, Ehretia hottentottica, and the spiny Asparagus. In these mounds, which may reach 2 ft.
. African invertebrates : a journal of biodiversity research. Invertebrates -- Africa; Biological diversity -- Africa; Biological diversity. OBSERVATIONS ON SOME SOUTH AFRICAN TERMITES. 879 cliaracter after years of occupation by successive colonies of this and perhaps other termites. The thickets in Pretoria are composed of several varieties of acacias (Acacia horrida, robusta, and caffra predoniinating"), associated with them are other thorny plants, the more usual kinds being G3Mn nosporia buxifolia, Ehretia hottentottica, and the spiny Asparagus. In these mounds, which may reach 2 ft. above ground-level and be 10 to 20 ft. across, the actual nest is above soil-level; but the whole is generally so involved by the intermingling and twisted root-systems as to render any account of the interior structure impossible. Text-fig. T. bad ins. Vertical section of nest in mound, involved in root- systems of many plants (diagrammatic), (x J^j.) In one instance, however, where a thicket had been burned over, the nest-cavity was found baked and preserved, the clay composing it being changed into a fairly hard red tile. In the case of the modern nests the structure is readily observed, and, whilst erratic, keeps to a general plan. The external feature is the presence of the series of hillocks already referred to. In some cases these are superimposed upon the mat of leaf-debris under the trees; when this is the case they can be lifted bodily from the ground. They are not solid, but are perforated by small tubular, twisting galleries which lead from the centre at the base and allow the termites to dispose of excavated earth by placing it as a new crust to the moundlet. The tenuous galleries all enter at ground level into a fairly large gallery or vertical shaft, which descends either by a VOL. 3, PART 2, 26. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these ill
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