INTESTINAL PROTOZOA OF TERMITES. 189 



colony is inversely proportional to the degree of gonad develop- 

 ment of their host. According to these investigators, the pro- 

 tozoa, with a small amount of saliva, function in the develop- 

 ment of soldiers and workers. Why the same thing (many 

 protozoa and a small amount of saliva) functions in the produc- 

 tion of two separate and distinct castes, they do not consider. 

 They observed that the protozoa were scarce in the winged sexual 

 forms, and usually totally absent in the neoteinic l individuals. 

 When they found protozoa abundant in the neoteinic indivi- 

 duals, the gonad development was imperfect. They remarked 

 that the developing neoteinic forms were fed largely on a salivary 

 diet, which they thought killed the protozoa, though it is more 

 probable that the protozoa died because their host no Ion.' r 

 furnished them with wood for food. Then, according to Grassi 

 and Sandias, it is impossible to say whether the maturation of 

 the gonads is clue solely to the change from a wood to a salivary 

 diet or to the absence of protozoa. In this paper they reach no 

 definite conclusion, though they do not believe the presence or 

 absence of protozoa a sufficient cause to control gonad develop- 

 ment, for they say: "It is a moot point whether the maturation 

 of the generative organs is due solely to the saliva or to the ab- 

 sence of protozoa as well; but the latter, as my- previous re- 

 marks show, is not by itself a sufficient cause." Then in the 

 next paragraph," I have frequently asked myself whether the 

 protozoa have not an important digestive function, since the 

 comminuted wo(xl passes almost entirely through their bodies. 

 It is probable, but not proved." 



Hrunelli (1905) followed up the idea of Grassi and Sandias, and 

 states that in the queens of two genera harboring protozoa, 

 Kalolermes flavicollis and Reticiditcrmes lucifugtis, there is a 

 correlated destruction of the oocytes a kind of indirect parasitic 



1 The term neoteinia was first introduced by Camerano (Bull. Soc. Ent. Ital,. 

 . pp. 89-94) to note the persistence during adult life of part or all of the char- 

 ;uuti-iu-s normally peculiar to the immature, growing, or larval stages. Grassi 

 and Sandias probably refer to the second and third form reproductive castes since 

 it has been shown by Thompson (1920) that the jaw muscles of these forms de- 

 rate to the extent that they cannot eat wood and must be fed on a fluid diet; 

 and, of course, we should not expect them to harbor intestinal protozoa when they 

 ili> not eat wood. 



: Grassi wrote most of the paper. The part written by Sandias is placed between 



