508 



INVERTEBRA TE MORPHOL OGT. 



one for each nest, the remaining un selected ones soon dying. 

 The neuters are of two sorts : the workers (Fig. 237, C), pale in 

 color and with comparatively small heads and mandibles, and 

 the soldiers (Fig. 237, D\ in which the head is very large and 

 dark colored and carries a pair of large mandibles. Both 

 these forms are destitute of eyes, and are to be regarded as in- 

 dividuals which have not passed beyond the larval stage, being 

 potentially either males or females with the reproductive 

 organs, however, undeveloped. The young larvse resemble 

 Thysanura in their general form and are cared for and fed by 



A B 



FIG. 237. Termes lucifugus (from LEUNIS). 

 A, winged male; B, female after loss of wiugs; C, worker; D, soldier. 



the workers. Those forms which are destined to become 

 kings and queens are nursed for a longer time than the others, 

 and progress further in their development, being really the 

 only members of the colony which reach the imago state. 



The Termites shun the light, and the American species are 

 chiefly found in rotten wood, upon which they feed, excavating 

 burrows within it. In some cases they prove very destructive 

 to the woodwork in houses, eating away the interior of the 

 wood and leaving eventually only a thin shell in place of the 

 originally solid beam. The African species builds large clay 

 mounds from three to four metres in height, tunnelled by a 



