Social Insects. 35 



The Termites thus exhibit a greater variety of resources for 

 the perpetuation of the species, in case of emergency, than even 

 the social Hymenoptera, and they also exhibit a greater variety 

 of individual forms in the same colony. There is also among the 

 different species, and especially among the different genera, a 

 gradation from the simple to the more complex economy. Their 

 habitations also vary from the simple to the more complete. 



Calotermes burrows in the branches of trees and requires no 

 specialized cells or chambers. Termesflawpes and allied species 

 make extensive excavations in prostrate logs or the beams of 

 houses, and are very destructive to old books, especially in dark 

 and damp situations. The excavations are usually elongate and 

 separated by partitions which are penetrated occasionally so as to 

 connect the whole. The walls are lined with a thin layer of 

 brown excrementitious matter, and some of the chambers are more 

 particularly used to store eggs in, while others are used as nur 

 series for the young. Subterranean galleries often extend some 

 distance away from the main termitary, and sometimes up under 

 the bark of trees. More rarely they are exposed above ground, 

 when the insects thicken the layer of excrementitious matter. 



Eutermes, which is common in the West Indies and in Central 

 and South America, builds exterior nests more or less spherical 

 or conical, generally at the base of trees, but also on the branches 

 or on stone walls. They are often as large as a hogshead, and 

 consist chiefly of excrementitious matter and of collected particles 

 of decayed wood. There are one or more queen cells in the most 

 protected parts of the nest, and other chambers for the eggs and 

 young, while temporary enlargements afford shelter for the 

 winged individuals before swarming. Covered galleries some 

 what thicker than an ordinary pencil, and composed of the same 

 material as the nest, but less compact, extend from the main 

 nest to the ground, or up the tallest trees, leading to food supplies. 



The constructional faculty is yet more highly developed in the 



gus, the difficulties in procuring a true queen would seem to be very great, 

 and Prof. Grassi, in five years' observations, has never found one. Yet he 

 had no difficulty in obtaining true kings and queens in confinement by 

 establishing little colonies of winged individuals. The same condition of 

 things prevails with our North American Termes flavipes, since in my own 

 observations and those of others, no true queen has been met with, and 

 reproduction is carried on, for the most part, by supplementary queens. 



