PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 22, NO. 6, JUNE, 1920 14.; 



Progeny of "Intermediate" Reproductive Forms of Termites. 



There is, as yet, no reliable data on the progeny of any of the 

 intermediate reproductive forms. However, it is believed, from 

 facts noted during observations of colonies in the field and from 

 the results of breeding in artificial colonies, that the intermediate 

 forms with mere wing vestiges probably breed true to type, as do 

 second form adults. 



It w r ould be extremely interesting to know whether or not the 

 intermediate reproductive form with long wing-pads resembling 

 a nymph of the first form except for the mature pigment, which 

 is as in second form adults produced winged adults or not. 



Infertility of Termite Soldiers with Wing Vestiges. 



In colonies of species of Kalotennes soldiers with rudimentary 

 wing-pads and deeper pigmentation are fairly common a pos- 

 sible reversion to the winged ancestral condition. 



In this connection, it is also interesting to note that recently 

 a colony of the large primitive termite Kalotennes occidentis 

 Walker has been found in Sabino Canyon in the Santa Catalina 

 Mountains of Arizona. Formerly this species had only been 

 known from the two type specimens in the British Museum, de- 

 scribed by Walker in 1S5.S from the west coast of Central America, 

 and several soldier nymphs from Angel Guardia Island in the Gulf 

 of Mexico, Lower California. A large series of soldiers from this 

 colony in Arizona showed the characteristically long wing-pads 

 (longer and with the traces of wing venation more distinct than 

 in other species) which occurred on the species from Angel Guardia 

 Island. Every specimen of a large series of all soldiers of this 

 termite, including the types, shows these vestiges of wing-pads. 

 This is very unusual, and is not true of the soldiers of any other 

 species of termite; other primitive termites have occasional sol- 

 diers with wing-pads. 



None of the higher more specialized termites have soldiers with 

 wing-pads. It was thought some of these soldiers might be fertile 

 Wheeler (1907) records workers and soldiers with vestiges of wings 

 in ants ; he terms them "pterergates." "The pterergate is a worker 

 or soldier with vestiges of wings on a thorax of the typical ergate 

 or dinergate form, such as occurs in certain species of M yrmica 

 and Cryptocems" - (Wheeler, 1913). 



The fertility of these soldier termites if it had been estab- 

 lished together with the vestigial wing-pads could be looked 

 upon as evidence of a primitive ancestral condition, when all ter- 

 mites were winged and fertile. No fertile workers have as yet 

 been found to occur among termites, nor any workers with wing- 

 pads or vestigial wings. There is no definite proof that fertile 



