DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANTENNA. OF TERMITES. 245 



development of the termite antenna is naturally correlated 

 vdtli it. Unfortunately it is practically if not wholly im- 

 possible to follow from day to day the growth and external 

 metamorphoses of the same insect, and one can only draAV a 

 series of inferences from the condition of many in successive 

 stages of development. With the multiplicity of forms to be 

 found in a typical termite community, coupled with consider- 

 able difference in size of an individual at the beginning and 

 the ending of a stadium, it will be understood that it is by 

 no manner of means an easy matter to distinguish amongst 

 them. Moreover, although attempts have been made to 

 obtain complete series of certain species, no matter how 

 careful one may be there always appear to be blanks. 

 Consequently, I can but offer a hypothetical case which must 

 not be taken too literally, and which, whilst it seems to fit 

 the development of the antenuse and to account for certain 

 divergences, calls for much deeper inquiry than I have yet 

 given to it. 



In the accompanying table (fig. 1) the transformations of 

 the imago are set out in the left-hand column, and those of 

 the soldiers and Avorkers in the right. Including the egg, 

 there appear to be seven stages for the imago and six for the 

 two other castes. Inasmuch as the soldiers and workers of 

 my incipient colonies took two to three months to reach the 

 adult condition, this is probably the period under ordinary 

 circumstances. Although these were abridged forms and 

 may have been hastened to the adult condition, yet in a large 

 community where food supplies are ample it is probable that 

 the period would be no longer; it might even be less. The time 

 taken by imagos to develop is known to be an extended one ; 

 with certain smaller-bodied species it seems to be one of six 

 months, whilst Avith our fungus-growers and with Rhino- 

 termes putorius the data collected point to it being about 

 nine months. Upon this alone it is not unreasonable to 

 assume an additional instar for the imago, more especially as 

 it is a store-house of reproductive elements and of nutritive 

 matter. However, the ascribing of the extra stadium of 



