I9O L. R. CLEVELAND. 



castration ("castration parasitaire"). Feutand (1912) says 

 what Brunelli regards as signs of degeneration is in reality nothing 

 more than an alteration of tissue brought about by the histo- 

 logical reagents. 



Grassi, nineteen years later (1911), collaborating with Foa, is 

 of the opinion that the protozoa do not aid their host in the 

 digestion of food, and he points out that many wood feeding 

 insects do not harbor protozoa. He states l that several workers 

 (species not mentioned) of Kalotermes ~ were placed in small 

 boxes with wood and incubated at about (circa) 35 C. It is 

 interesting to note that none of the protozoa harbored by Kalo- 

 termes schwarzi Banks, from Miami Beach, Florida, are killed 

 when incubated for three days at 35 C. How long Grassi's 

 species of Kalotermes was incubated is not known, for he does not 

 mention this in his paper. But he does state that the incubation 

 killed off nearly all the protozoa, all of the large forms being 

 killed off every time. These termites, he states, lived in full 

 activity for several months. 



Recently Jucci (1920 and 1921), in a preliminary paper re- 

 ported before the Academy of Lincei, has announced the dis- 

 covery of a particular diet which brings about caste production. 

 But the carefully controlled breeding experiments and the numer- 

 ous field observations of Thompson and Snyder (1919, 1920, etc.) 

 make it highly probable that at least three of the castes, namely, 

 the first, the second and the third form reproductive males and 

 females, only give rise to fertile reproductive males and females 

 like themselves and to infertile males and females of the soldier 

 and worker castes. 



2. Commensals. 



If these entozoic protozoa benefit from their association with 

 the termites, and by so doing do not harm or benefit their host, 

 they are commensals. They may feed from the waste food- 



1 Per mio conto in questi ultimi anni ho cercato di decidere la questione in altro 

 modo: se si tengono ad una tcmperatura di circa 35 C. scatolette contencnti legno 

 picno di Calotermes, i Protozoi muoiono, talvolta tutti, piu spesso restanu in vita 

 soltanto le forme piccolo; si hanno cosi delle colonie di Calotermes senza Joenia e 

 Mesojoenia, e talvolta con molti individui anche del tutto privi di Protozoi. lo le 

 tengo in vita prospera da parecchi mesi; perci6 ritengo che i Calotermes possano 

 digerirc il legno anche senza gli speciali Protozoi (Joenia e Mesojoenia). 



2 Also spelled Calotermes 



