Native gut homogenate described above was used in kinetic cellulase activity assays using p-nitrophenol-B-D-cellobioside(pNPC) and p nitrophenol-B-D-glucopyranoside(pNPG) as sub- strates. For these assays, 10 HL of native gut homogenate was combined with 90 HL of 6 mM pNP(C or G) in 0.1 M sodium phosphate(pH 70). Reactions were repeated in triplicate. Enzyme activity was read kinetically at 420 nm every minute for 3 h. Cellulase specific activity per termite was estimated using mean velocity for each treatment on both substrates.