224 INSECTS 



represented in both sexes, but the reproductive organs 

 are undeveloped and neither sex is capable of repro- 

 ducing. If we get at the home of a large colony in an 

 old tree, in late fall or early spring, we may find with 

 these white, wingless forms, some decidedly larger, 

 rusty brownish specimens, which have well developed 

 long wings lying fiat on the back and well developed 

 eyes. These are the males and females which during 

 the warm days of spring leave the parent nest in a body 

 and swarm. They are sometimes seen emerging from 

 some old fence-post or house timber in great hordes 

 and for a short time fill the air. Their flight is very 

 weak, the two pairs of wings being unconnected and 

 very similar to each other, and when they have mated 

 they disappear. The majority of all these specimens 

 die without being able to found a colony and the method 

 of starting varies somewhat with the species. For our 

 present purpose it will be sufficient to say that in a 

 developed colony there is one queen or egg-laying 

 female, with abdomen so distended that she is helpless, 

 simply oozing eggs which are taken and cared for by the 

 workers. Or there may be several " complemental " 

 females which have never left the nest and never become 

 fully winged. In any case the co,lony consists of many 

 thousands of individuals and from the centre, where the 

 queen resides, galleries extend in all directions. The 

 food is usually wood-fibre ; but may be any sort of dry 

 vegetable products even when made up into thread, 

 paper or other artificial forms. Because they are blind 

 the workers shun the light and always work in burrows 

 or galleries, first eating out the fibres as food and then 

 using the excrement to form cells or chambers where the 

 raw tissue has been removed. When a nest of Termites 

 has its centre near a wooden dwelling, the galleries may 

 at almost any time reach some of the posts or supports: 



