Kevin Bundy, age 11, of Decatur, I11., for his question:

ARE THERE MANY KINDS OF TERMITES?

Termite is the common name given to a group of insects that live in communities somewhat as ants do. There are about 2,000 different kinds of termites known but only about 40 of them live in North America.

Termites do much damage by tunneling through fence posts, trees, timbers of wooden buildings, bridges, trestles and other structures. In houses they eat cloth, books and paper. Experts tell us that termites cause as much property damage each year in the United States as fire does.

Although they live like ants, and are sometimes improperly called white ants, termites and more closely related to cockroaches and grasshoppers than to ants. Their mouth parts, simple feelers, thick waists, primitive wings and other features resemble those of cockroaches. Termites stand near the bottom of the scale of insect life. Ants are near the top.

In the United States, termites fall into three groups according to their habits: the subterranean termites, the damp wood termites and the dry wood termites.

Subterranean termites are the smallest but the most destructive. They nest underground and extend their burrows for considerable distances into wooden structures. The damp wood termites live only in very moist wood. These termites cause trouble only on the Pacific Coast. The dry wood termites need little moisture. They are destructive in the Southwest. Damp wood and dry wood termites have no true worker caste.

Termites digest wood, paper and other material containing cellulose, with the aid of protozoa in their bodies. They do much damage in tunneling through the woodwork of houses, destroying books and furniture and doing great damage to sugar cane and orange trees.

In tropical forests, where termites are found in large numbers, railroad builders most import cast iron or steel ties because the insects destroy wooden ties.

There are three classes in most termite colonies. Some reproduce, others are the workers and still others are the soldiers.

Each termite colony is founded by a pair of reproductives, which become the king and queen. In every mature colony there develops an annual crop of young winged reproductives that leave the parent nest, mate and set out to found new colonies. They use their delicate wings for but one short flight. They break them off immediately afterward and just before they seek,mates.

The worker class is made up of small, blind, wingless termites. They do all of the colony's work. They enlarge the nest, search for food and water and make tunnels.

The soldiers, which are also wingless and blind, are larger than the workers. The sole duty of the soldiers is to defend the colony against attack, principally against ants. The soldiers are strangely unable to care for themselves. They must be fed and groomed by the workers.