680 CLASS IV. INSECTA. 



numbers of (ii) workers, and (iii) soldiers. These are male and 

 female with sexual organs arrested in development and without 

 wings. The soldiers are distinguished from the workers by their 

 size rather than by their valour ; in fact the workers are the chief 

 fighters. In T. bellicosus the soldier is fifteen times the size of the 

 worker. The head is enormous and the mandibles are especially 

 enlarged and show well-marked specific characters. A certain 

 modification, in which the head is prolonged into a snout, from 

 which issues a fluid used in cementing the walls of the nest, 

 gives origin to a sub-grade of soldiers called the nasuti. Besides the 

 forms already mentioned the nest is crowded with larvae, which 

 leave the egg in an active but soft and blind condition. These 

 young are at first all alike, some of them are destined to form 

 workers and soldiers-, others to acquire wings and to leave the 

 nest in countless swarms. The latter probably pair in their 

 flight and dropping to the earth shake off their wings. Should a 

 male and female alight together they may succeed in founding a 

 new colony, retaining in them a sufficient store of nutriment to 

 last till the first batch of workers hatches out ; these then begin 

 to tend their royal parents. 



T. lucifucjus is found in the south of Europe and in the United 

 States. Its galleries mostly lead to wood of various kinds, old 

 trees, parts of buildings and even furniture. There are workers 

 and soldiers and larvae in various stages but apparently no 

 royal pair. The reproductive functions have been taken on 

 by a number of complemental females, which have not com- 

 pleted the normal cycle of development and in externals re- 

 semble one or other of the late larval stages, for in this 

 species the reproductive organs may become active at differing 

 stages of development. Kings are not always to be found, and 

 it may be that in the case of the male the reign is transitory and 

 that the kings die or are killed as soon as they have fertilized the 

 females. The development of the community takes eighteen 

 to twenty-three months, during which several swarms of winged 

 individuals are given off : most of these fall victims to insecti- 

 vorous birds, etc., but some pairs escape and seek to establish 

 new colonies, in which case the female would be a true queen 

 whose functions are later assumed by the complemental females. 



Calotermes flavicollis is the second species of European termite. 

 It inhabits the Mediterranean region. It has no specialized 



