Recent researches of Termites and Honey-bees 1 ). 



(From a letter to Ch. Darwin.) 



The accompanying letter, just received from Fritz Mtiller, in Southern Brazil, 

 is so interesting that it appears to me well worth publishing in Nature. His dis- 

 covery of the two sexually mature forms of Termites, and of their habits, is now 

 published in Germany; nevertheless few Englishmen will have as yet seen the 

 account. 



In the German paper he justly compares, as far as function is concerned, 

 the winged males and females of the one form, and the wingless males and 

 females of the second form, with those plants which produce flowers of two 

 forms, serving different ends, of which so excellent an account has lately appeared 

 in Nature by his brother, Hermann Miiller. 



The facts, also, given by Fritz Miiller with respect to the stingless bees of 

 Brazil will surprise and interest entomologists. 



Feb. 1 1 . Charles Darwin. 



"For some years I have been engaged in studying the natural history of 

 our Termites, of which I have had more than a dozen living species at my dis- 

 position. The several species differ much more in their habits and in their ana- 

 tomy than is generally assumed. In most species there are two sets of neuters, 

 viz., labourers and soldiers; but in some species (Calotermes Hg.) the labourers, 

 and in others (Anoplotermes F. M.) the soldiers, are wanting. With respect to 

 these neuters I have come to the same conclusion as that arrived at by Mr. Bates, 

 viz. that, differently from what we see in social Hymenoptera, they are not modi- 

 fied images (sterile females), but modified larvae, which undergo no further meta- 

 morphosis. This accounts for the fact first observed by Lespes, that both the 

 sexes are represented among the sterile (or so-called neuter) Termites. In some 

 species of Calotermes the male soldiers may even externally be distinguished 

 from the female ones. I have been able to confirm, in almost all our species, 

 the fact already observed by Mr. Smeathman a century ago, but doubted by 

 most subsequent writers, that in the company of the queen there lives always a 

 king. The most interesting fact in the natural history of these curious insects 



i) Nature 1874. Vol. IX. p. 308, 309. 



