THE TERMITES 



which have been built up inside their bodies, and on material 

 derived from the degenerating wing-muscles. In these 

 termites, too, the brood do not become self-supporting until 

 they are much bigger. In some species it is perhaps only the 

 fully grown workers which actually obtain new food, and 

 all the other inhabitants have to be fed by them. 



Termites are pre-eminently eaters of wood; to a less 

 extent they eat other vegetable matter. The less specialised 

 types are almost exclusively wood-feeders, and these also 

 nest in timber. More highly organised forms make use of 

 other supplies, such as dead vegetable matter in general. A 

 few collect grass and other green leaves which they cut like 

 leaf-cutter ants. Others collect grass seeds which they store 

 in underground chambers after the manner of harvesting 

 ants. 



Many, especially those which make the large conspicuous 

 nests, store varied vegetable material in underground chambers. 

 These collections, especially those of thoroughly chewed 

 wood, become impregnated with fungus just as happens in 

 leaf-cutting ants, and some of the fungi are peculiar to this 

 situation. The termites feed on the fungus, but it does not 

 seem that they are so closely adapted to the diet as the ants 

 are. Almost certainly it is one of the ways in which they can 

 supplement their diet with proteins or with special growth- 

 promoting substances. Termites also eat all the moult skins 

 of the developing brood, having a digestive juice which can 

 dissolve insect skeletons. Any wounded or damaged indi- 

 vidual is quickly eaten by the others. A few species are 

 known to collect other termites anAto store them in chambers 

 just as they do vegetable materials. Like the queens of other 

 social insects, the termite royal couple may eat an appreciable 

 number of their own eggs, even when there seems to be no 

 shortage of food. 



i75 



