144 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



mous size, and is extended horizontally, not held vertically as in ants. The eyes are 

 rather small, rounded, and between them are two simple eyes or ocelli, a third nearly 

 obsolete one being situated in front. The antennas are slender, not very long, and 

 with about twenty joints, and they are not elbowed as in ants. The jaws (mandibles) 

 are not so long and sharp as in ants, but are shorter and stouter, more adapted for 

 gnawing, with fine teeth on the cutting or inner edge. 



The most striking features of the white ants, and in which they differ from any 

 other of their order, is the fact that there are besides males and females certain wing- 

 less forms, called workers and soldiers. For example, if one will open a stump, or 

 turn over a log under which our common white ant has established a colony, he will 

 find besides the winged males and females that by far the larger number of wingless 

 individuals are not the active larvae but fully grown individuals, with heads of mod- 

 erate size and small jaws. These are called workers, because like the wingless worker 

 ants they perform all the various duties of the colony. Besides these a few wingless 

 individuals will be seen which have very large square heads and large, long jaws. 

 These are called soldiers, as they guard the nest from attack, and are bolder and more 

 pugnacious in disposition than the smaller workers. 



All the wingless individuals are sexless, the organs of reproduction being undevel- 

 oped. They may be compared, therefore, to the wingless workers among ants, or to 

 the winged workers of bees, and should lie regarded as individuals specialized or set 

 apart for the performance of certain, duties, involving the preservation of the entire 

 colony. Indeed the winged males and females have little to do beyond providing for 

 the continuance of the species and the preservation of the colony, the population of 

 which is exceedingly large, the females being very prolific. The soldiers, as Smeath- 

 man long ago observed, act as " sentinels and soldiers, making their appearance when 

 the nest is invaded, attacking the intruders and inciting the laborers to work. The 

 more peaceful and laborious workers are estimated to be one hundred times more 

 numerous than the soldiers." They collect food, work as miners in tunnelling then- 

 covered ways, guard the males and females, and take care of the eggs and young. 



After impregnation the females, as in the case of the ants, lose their wings. They 

 are then conducted into the interior of the nest by the workers. Here, in the African 

 species (the gravid females of our North American species have never been discovered), 

 the body of the female becomes enormously distended with eggs, being over two 

 inches in length, and it is known to lay eighty thousand eggs in the course of a day. 



As has been stated, there are several kinds of individuals among the white ants, and 

 in this respect they resemble the true ants, wasps, and bees. In our common Termes 

 flavipes, besides males and females there are Avorkers and soldiers ; so also with the 

 west African species studied by Smeathman, who divides the colony or community 

 into a king, a queen, with many laborers and a number of soldiers. Smeathman 

 describes five species of white ants which he studied, and whose habits he records in 

 his famous tract, published in 1781 in the "Transactions of the Royal Society of 

 London," entitled " Some Account of the Termites which are found in Africa and 

 other hot countries." In our author's own words : " Of every species there are three 

 orders ; first, the working insects, which for brevity I shall generally call laborers, next 

 the fighting ones, or soldiers, which do no kind of labor ; and last of all, the winged 

 ones, or perfect insects, which are male and female, and capable of propagation. These 

 might very appositely be called the nobility or gentry, for they neither labor, nor toil, 

 nor fight, being quite incapable of either, and almost of self-defence. These only are 



