72 Riley Preside iitial Address. 



them a single true king. i. e., with distinct wing-stumps. "Instead of a 

 royal palace " he says, "in which the king lived in chaste matrimony with 

 his equal consort, I had a harem before my eyes in which a sultan satisfied 

 himself with numerous coquettes." This observation would seem to indi 

 cate that, in the economy of the Termite colony, a true king and queen may 

 not only be replaced by" supplementary kings and queens, but that this 

 substitution may take place for both sexes at the same time, or for each sex 

 separately. 



I would observe, in this connection, that during the swarming season 

 many species of true ants forcibly detain some of the winged males and fe 

 males and prevent their leaving the formicary by biting off their wings, and 

 that the pairs thus forcibly detained supply the colony with eggs. A simi 

 lar condition may prevail among the Termites, and if so, would throw light 

 on some of the facts which have been observed. 



INFLUENCE OF FOOD AND TREATMENT. The effect of food and treatment 

 has less, perhaps, to do with the differentiation of individuals among ter 

 mites than among the bees, wasps or ants. 



All Termite larvrc are supposed to partake of the same kind of food, as to 

 the nature of which there is conflict of opinion, due doubtless to the vary 

 ing habits in the different species. From my own observations on Termes 

 and Eutermes, I am inclined to believe that, as in the Social Hynienoptera, 

 the food and treatment of the young larva, during the first stage more par 

 ticularly, have much to do in determining the development or suppression 

 of the sexual organs, and, as a consequence, in determining the character 

 of the full grown individual. The eg^s are, first of all, brought together in 

 special parts of the termitary, and it is quite probable that the workers ex 

 ercise some judgment and" discrimination in the grouping, as has been 

 proved to be the case with Hymenoptera, with a view to future larval treat 

 ment. Judging from the delicacy of their mouth-parts and of the general 

 integument, the young are at first more or less dependent upon either the 

 forethought or the direct action of the adults, and I cannot resist the con 

 clusion that the infancy of the termites is dependent, as it is in the 

 Social Hymenoptera, if not to the same extent; for they have soon perished 

 where I have hatched them away from adults, and have developed where 

 the adults had access to them. But further exact observations, which, in 

 the nature of the case, it is difficult to make, are needed before definite con 

 clusions can be drawn. Fritz Miiller believes that the young feed on a 

 fungus which develops on the walls of the cells, a peculiar white fungus being 

 not uncommon in such situations, though I have more often found nothing 

 of the sort where the young were abundant. 



Mr. Hubbard found many small hard bodies among the eggs of Euierm.es 

 rippertii which were recognized as the sclerotium of a fungus by Prof. F. G. 

 Farlow, and other observers have referred to the presence of fungi in Ter 

 mite nests. Mr. Hubbard also records the feeding of the young upon hard 

 and tough rounded masses found in the nests of the above-named species. 

 They could not do so, however, without the assistance of the nasuti or work 

 ers to soften these nodules, for their mouthparts are too feeble, while the 

 nodules are of very irregular occurrence and in some nests not present at 

 all. Where the young are crowding, the material of the nest is moister 

 than elsewhere and their chief food must be a liquid regurgitated from 

 the mouth, by the workers or by the partly developed sexed individuals, 

 just sis in the social Hymenoptera, and either taken directly or from the 

 moistened substance of the cavities. Indeed, though Mr. P. H. Dudley in 

 some interesting observations on Eutermes on the Isthmus of Panama 

 (Journal N. Y. Micros. Soc. V. p. 62, April, 1889) describes the nasuti as 

 being able to fire an " offensive glutinous shot, which puts an antagonist 

 twice his size luws de combed," I have never been able to confirm this 

 statement. The nasuti have seemed to me defenseless and I suspect that 

 the liquid so readily secreted from the tip of the nose is chiefly designed for 

 nourishment. That comminuted, decayed wood, as well as the faeces are 



