ISOPTERA 



413 



same time, and of the countless numbers a few individuals escape the 

 attacks of birds and other animals and alight and cast their wings. 

 A single pair forms a new colony first of all by making a small 

 burrow, the nuptial chamber. The first formed young are mostly 

 workers, and having themselves been tended to maturity by their 

 parents take over the nursing of the young. The queen becomes 



Fig. 307. Hamitermes silvestri Hill. Tropical Australia. After Tillyard. 

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



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 . 62) 

 and other flagellates in the hind gut. The fragments of wood are in- 

 gested by the Protozoa and converted into sugars, being largely stored 



