OBSKKVATIONS ON SOME .SOUTH AFRICAN TERMITES. 875 



that the characteristic of this queen is that it is, and looks 

 like, a superaiiimated muscle. Doubtless the effort to move is 

 lessened by the compression of the insect in its shallow cell. 

 The flaccid and immobile queens of T. badius lie in hisrh 

 domed cells, and so the woi'kers can approach the eggs from 

 all directions. The movement of the natalensis queen is 

 perhaps not without purpose, as it ensures the depositing of 

 the eggs more or less i-egularly around the periphery of the 

 cell. 



Egg-laying has for its accompaniment an excessive muscu- 

 lar actiou, independent of the movement of the body as a 

 whole, and as involuntary as the act of breathing with man. 

 This muscular action is complex and represented by the 

 bulging, or great lateral expansion, of various regions of the 

 nbdomen. The body is invariably very asymmetrical, and 

 the bulging is quite erratic ; it is not a regular undulation 

 proceeding from the anterior to the posterior region, and any 

 inflations upon one side do not correspond or alternate with 

 any progressing on the other. The dorsal region — a median 

 area wider than the sclerites — remains taut, as does the 

 similar ventral region. 



The eggs are produced spasmodically ; they may form into 

 a small packet, which clings for a while about the vulva, or 

 tliey may be squirted out in a quantity of fluid. Even those 

 which are laid separately are embedded to some extent in 

 a white matter. Although laid spasmodically, the intervals 

 of rest are very short, and upon the average the queen lays 

 140 eggs per hour. This is far short of Snieathman's 30,000 

 in twenty-four hours; but, upon the other hand, it is in agree- 

 ment with observations made upon T. badius, of which 

 fuller particulars are given. 



It may be urged that the rate of egg-laying would be 

 modified by the abnormal circumstances under which the 

 observations were made. Whilst not prepared to concede 

 this point, the figures may be doubled or even trebled for the 

 purpose of showing how far short of 30,000 they still remain. 



The queen is frequently grossly infested with small and 



