xv, i Uichanco: Philippine Mound-building Termites 53 



tical eggs. A full-grown queen lays eggs at the rate of thirty 

 to sixty a minute. The workers remove the eggs immediately 

 after they are extruded and carry them away to be taken care 

 of in the nurseries. 



The original king does not live long, being probably replaced 

 many times during the existence of the colony. The queen's 

 life has been estimated to last about twenty years. Certain 

 species of termites insure the perpetuation of their colony 

 by providing for a substitute queen, sometimes designated ne- 

 oteinic. The latter is distinguishable from the true queen by 

 the absence of any indication of her having ever attained the 

 power of flight. She is fully as capable of reproduction as the 

 true queen, but does not live quite so long. 



The soldiers and the workers are asexual individuals. They 

 have no external indication of the organs of sight and never 

 develop wings. They avoid the light and build protective covers 

 wherever they go, though there is a species of black termites r ' 

 which travels readily in the daylight through forests and in 

 open places when necessary. Numerous passageways radiate in 

 all directions, under or upon the surface of the ground, from 

 their nests to the objects of their attack — old logs, living tree 

 trunks, house posts, fences; in fact, all kinds of ligneous ma- 

 terials that may come within their reach. Accompanied by a 

 comparatively small number of soldiers, a number of workers 

 set out upon their work in regular processions, usually under 

 cover of dirt tunnels. The others that remain at home are 

 on duty attending the queen, the eggs, and the young; enlarging 

 the mound; harvesting the crops; protecting the nest against 

 intruding enemies (of which the worst is a species of red ant, 

 Solenopsis geminata Fabr., very frequently found living in large 

 colonies within easy re#ch of the mounds) ; and keeping the 

 mound in a healthy and sanitary condition. To keep their nest 

 clean, the termites maintain, or otherwise encourage, in their 

 colony a force of scavengers, often termed "guests," consisting 

 of beetles, earwigs, cockroaches, spring-tails, and myriapods, 

 which continually rid the premises of waste materials. 



Communication among the termites is undoubtedly carried 

 on by means of their senses of touch and of smell. They have 

 a remarkable ability to locate the different places in the perfectly 

 dark nest, and can start on long journeys and search out their 

 various necessities with an admirable degree of precision. A 



' Probably not a mound-building species. 



