470 



THE INVERTEBRATA 



enormous and helpless and is fed by the workers ; she lays eggs at an 

 incredible rate, up to a million eggs a year, it is said. 



It is now known that digestion and growth of wood-eating termites 

 can only go on when there is a protozoan fauna of trichonymphids 

 (p. 67) and other flagellates in the hind gut. The fragments of wood 



Fig. 326. Hamitermes silvestri Hill. Tropical Australia. After Tillyard. 

 A, Neoteinic queen. B, Winged male. C, Worker. D, Soldier. E, Nymph. 



are ingested by the Protozoa and converted into sugars, being largely 

 stored up in the form of glycogen. The flagellates seem to form the 

 main food source to the termites, the wood having been already 

 digested within them. 



Termites may forage by night for plant food and the genus Termes 

 also cultivates in its nest fundus gardens . The fungus which grows on 



