TERMITIDAE 377 



either used for building or as food for another individual. The 

 mode of eating the ecdysial products has also been described by 

 Grassi and Sandias. When an individual is sick or disabled it 

 is frequently eaten alive. It would appear that the soldiers are 

 great agents in this latter event, and it should be noticed that 

 owing to their great heads and mandibles they can obtain food by 

 other means only with difficulty. Since they are scarcely able to 

 gnaw wood, or to obtain the proctodaeal and stomodaeal foods, 

 their condition may be considered to be that of permanent 

 hunger, only to be allayed by carnivorous proceedings. When 

 thrown into a condition of excitement the soldiers sometimes 

 exhibit a sort of Calotermiticidal mania, destroying with a few 

 strokes five or six of their fellows. It is, however, only proper to 

 say that these strokes are made at random, the creature having 

 no eyes. The carnivorous propensities of Calotermes are ap- 

 parently limited to cannibalism, as they slaughter other white 

 ants (Termes lucifugus) but never eat them. 



The salivary food is white and of alkaline nature ; when 

 excreted it makes its appearance on the upper lip. It is used 

 either by other individuals or by the specimen that produced 

 it ; in the latter case it is transferred to the lower lip and 

 swallowed by several visible efforts of deglutition. The aliments 

 we have mentioned are made use of to a greater or less extent by 

 all the individuals except the very young ; these are nourished 

 only by saliva : they commence taking proctodaeal and stomo- 

 daeal food before they can eat triturated wood. 



Royal Pairs. The restriction of the reproductive powers of 

 a community to a single pair (or to a very restricted number of 

 individuals) occurs in all the forms of social Insects, and in 

 all of them it is concomitant with a prolongation of the repro- 

 ductive period far exceeding what is natural in Insects. We are 

 not in a position at present to say to what extent the lives of the 

 fertile females of Termitidae are prolonged, there being great diffi- 

 culties in the way of observing these Insects for long periods owing 

 to their mode of life ; living, as they do, concealed from view, light 

 and disturbance appear to be prejudicial to them. We have every 

 reason to believe, however, that the prolongation extends as a 

 rule over several years, and that it is much greater than that of 

 the other individuals of the community, although the lives of 

 even these latter are longer than is usual in Insects ; but this 



