THE TERMITES 



large, is at least partly pigmented, has the eyes small or 

 absent, and has a modified head. The most usual type of 

 soldier has large mandibles, rather like the typical ant soldier, 

 but there is another type in some termites known as the 

 nasute. This type of soldier has reduced jaws, but has the 

 top of the head produced into a long snout, at the tip of 

 which is an orifice. This is the opening of a gland which 

 produces a copious, sticky, often white, secretion. They can 

 use this to gum up their enemies, principally ants. While 

 there is some doubt whether, in certain species, the soldiers 

 are much use in defending the colony, this does seem to be 

 their function in most. It is very striking in the species 

 which make daylight forays above ground that the immense 

 columns of workers are flanked on each side by rows of 

 soldiers ; this strongly supports the idea that their function 

 is protective. 



Soldiers are incapable of feeding themselves and do none 

 of the work of the colony. They might be compared to 

 the workers of the amazon ants except that they do not 

 make slave-raids. In some of the more specialised termites 

 there are two sorts of soldiers, quite distinct in size, but 

 mandibulate and nasute soldiers never occur in the same 

 species. 



In the less specialised termites there is no definite worker 

 caste and the main work of the colony is performed by the 

 nymphs and the older larvae. There may, however, be a 

 group known as false workers whose form is semi-stabilised 

 though under certain conditions they may recommence 

 growing and moulting. If they do so, they become either 

 larger false workers or else the substitute sexual forms 

 described in the next paragraph. In the specialised termites, a 

 true worker caste is found and may, as in the soldiers, be of 

 two distinct sizes. Members of this caste resemble large 



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