I IU: FEEDING HABIT OF TERMITE CASTES. 2Q7 



or "royal forms." The second and third forms he calls "sub- 

 stitute" and "complemental" forms, which forms, he thinks, 

 are always ready to take the place of the royal forms in case of 

 need. This author believes the castes are a product of environ- 

 ment and special feeding; what environment and special feedingi 

 he does not consider. Bugnion ('12, '13) and Imms ('19) believe 

 the castes are a product of the germplasm. The field observa- 

 tion- that ha\e been made (Snyder, '15, '16) support this con- 

 tention. s <> <!<> the morphological studies of Thomp-<>ii '17 . 

 But we really kn:s absolutely nothing about wli.it produces the 

 castes. The question is badly in need of study. Jucci 

 who recently announced the discovery of a particular diet which 

 brinu- .ihout caste production, has added nothing but confu-ion. 

 -nbtlcly clothed in high-sounding phrase. io tin- origin of 



.1 mo-t interesting phenomenon. 



I roin the description that was given of th< -. it m.i\ be 



dearly -een that very great morphological differences exist \\ithin 

 a termite species, i.e., the castes are quite distinct. It al>o 

 Seems likely tli.it physiologically the caster are equally distinct. 



The writer ('236, '24(7. '256) has definitely -hown that the 

 reino\al o! the intestinal proto/oa from at leaM two genera of 

 termite- !\< .'/< ulitermes and Termopsis] makes it impossible tin 

 them to live on their normal diet of wood. He j v/) has al-o 

 shoun that it termites harbor protozoa, they mu-t feed on wood 

 or celluloM-. In the present paper a study of the \arioii- 

 h. i- been ma le in on ler to determine whether or not \\hat is true. 







tor termites in general is also true for each ca.-te throughout it- 

 lite-cycle. In addition to this, some data on the physiological 



ilitterentiation of c.i-tes and the relation of the castes to each 

 other have been obtained. 



L.M'I KIMKNTS AND OUSERVA 1 l< >N -. 



1 ort> to hft\ colonies of Reticulitermes flai'ipes were collected 

 and have been kept for the past three years in the laboratory 

 where they ha\ e been carefully observed. More than 300 second 



1 Alter this paper had gone to press a voluminous monograph by Jucci appeared, 

 in which much attention is given to considerations of minor importance. A good 

 beginning has been made, but the problem of the origin of termite castes has not 

 I" ' n solved. 



