BY WALTKR W. FROfUJATT. 513 



short concave or sloping transverse veinlets very varialjle in 

 numl^er and disposition. The remarkable transverse suture near 

 the base of the wings causes them to drop off at the slightest 

 obstruction, leaving behind attached to the thorax a small slender 

 flap (which I have termed the scapular shield). In the legs the 

 cox;e are large, with a transverse trochanter at the base, to which 

 the thighs are attached and not to the coxje; the femora are 

 generally stout and short; the tibia? slender and cylindrical, with 

 two or more stout spines at the tip; the tarsi consist of four joints, 

 the first three round, with the terminal one slender, armed with 

 sharp curved claws, at the base of which there is sometimes a 

 plantula. 



The abdomen consists of ten segments, forming an elongated 

 rounded bod}' with a pair of cei'ci at the base of the 9th segment, 

 and in many species there are sometimes two other slender jointed 

 appendages known as the anal appendices. 



The integument consists of chitinous plates, genei-alh' very thin 

 and delicate, but in some of the larger species of considerable 

 strength. 



Termites live in social communities, either constructing distinct 

 nests, earthy mounds covering a woody nucleus, known as a 

 Termitarium, or else simple tunnels or galleries under logs, stones, 

 or in the timbers of houses. Each community consists, broadly 

 speaking, of three castes or classes. Fii'stly, the winged males 

 and females, which are found in great numbers" only at certain 

 seasons of the year, but always in the nests in a larval or imper- 

 fect form. Secondly, the workers, aborted males and females, 

 Avingless, pale yellow, or white, with a large oval body and no 

 ver}' distinctive characters in most species; these do all the work 

 of the nest, building the walls, gnawing out the wood, and looking 

 after the eggs and young larvje. Thii-dly, the soldiers, also aborted 

 males and females, which have the jaws produced into long scissor- 

 like projections, closing over or meeting at the tips like a pair of 

 shears, very constant in form in the different species, and of use 

 in classification. 



