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



The dates of swarming, or the colonizing flights of termites 

 vary not only with the species and the geographical location, but 

 also with the season. 



There may be several swarms of adults of a species of Reticuli- 

 termes from one colony, distributed over a period of several weeks. 

 The first swarm, however, consists of the greatest number of 

 individuals. 



Species in the family Kalotermitidae may fly irregularly over a 

 period of several months. 



New or incipient colonies are established, after a short flight, 

 by the winged colonizing sexual adults of the first form, that 

 swarm. These colonies are formed in the earth under decaying 

 wood lying on the ground; in this wood; under loose bark on 

 dead trees or logs; or in crevices in trees anywhere where there 

 is a sufficient supply of moisture. Within a few days after the 

 swarm the young parent adults may be found in such sites, but 

 they later disappear, penetrating more deeply into the wood. 



These winged males and females of the first form, after losing 

 the wings, become the reproductive forms of the normal or first 

 form type with wing stubs. Reproductive forms of this type are 

 not rare or difficult to find at the proper season of the year 

 in colonies of species of Reticulitennes eastern United States, 

 but in the region of the Great Plains they must be far below 

 ground during dry seasons, since they have not been found as 

 yet. Conditions in these regions may be somewhat similar to 

 those in Sicily where Grassi (1893) studied the habits of R. 

 lucifugus Rossi, and account for the fact that he was unable to 

 find this type of reproductive form. Grassi believed that the 

 colonizing forms were all destroyed or irretrievably lost at the 

 time of the swarm. 



The "Pseudo-Flight of the Second Form Colonizing Adults of Reticulitermes 



Virginicus Banks. 



As has been previously stated: "The colonies of Reticulitermes 

 flavipes Kollar and mrginicus Banks, found in the southeastern 

 United States in the spring, often contain nymphs of the second 

 form, sometimes in large numbers, associated with either nymphs 

 of the first form or winged sexual adults. These young repro- 

 ductive types of the second form attain their mature pigmenta- 

 tion at about the same time that the colonizing winged adults or 

 reproductive types of the first form swarm, but after the swarm 

 they are not found in the parent colonies. We may ask why 

 they are produced and what becomes of them? They are not 

 needed in the parent colony any more than the winged colonizing 

 forms, and it may be that they are impelled to leave the old col- 



