520 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



lascustris as it comes from the egg already shows the frontal horn, 

 at the extremity of which opens the orifice of the enormous cephalic 

 gland which enables it in the adult state to cover an enemy with 

 a repugnant liquid. If the sterility of the soldier is of a trophogenic 

 order, as is most probable, since the soldiers of the termites can 

 sometimes become fertile, its very unique characters, entirely absent 

 among its progenitors and among the workers, are of a blastogenic 

 order. We are here in the presence of a phenomenon comparable 

 to that which is shown by those Papilio which bear in the same 

 egg laying two or three kinds of females, or else simply something 

 analogous to sexual dimorphism. Is there, as for the male and 

 the female, a difference in the chromosome content of the nucleus 

 which characterizes the egg from which the soldier comes? We 

 do not know yet, but in that case it is Weismann who would be 

 right. 



Is it necessary to conclude from this that, as for the soldier of 

 the termites, if the sterility of the workers of the termites or of 

 the neuters of the ants in general is of a trophogenic nature, their 

 morphological peculiarities are blastogenic? We do not think so. 



The workers of the termites differ much less from the normal 

 individuals than the soldiers, and as for the ants it can be said 

 that their neuters are not more differentiated from the female than 

 is the worker bee from the queen. Weismann has, moreover, made 

 an observation of great value to the point of view which we take. 

 The ant hills of Formica sanguinea are frequently infested by 

 coleoptera of the family of Staphylinides, Lowiechusa strumosa. 

 These are parasites which the ants take care of and of which they 

 even bring up the larvae. The Lomechusa have hairs on which is 

 spread a secretion on which the ants dote and which intoxicates 

 them. When these parasites become very numerous the ant hill 

 falls into decay, the ants concerning themselves more with their 

 guests than with the individuals of their own species. It is estab- 

 lished, then, that the larvae which ought to give birth to winged 

 females, being poorly cared for, produce only " pseudogynes," degen- 

 erate wingless females offering transitional characters which ap- 

 proach those of the workers. It is the counterpart of the transforma- 

 tion of a worker into a queen among the bees ! 



We arrive, then, at this probability: That, except in the special 

 case of the soldiers of the termites, which are in some way grafted 

 on to the general phenomenon, the neuters of the social insects are 

 of trophogenic origin. Was it not the same in the beginning for 

 the somatic cells of multicellular organisms? 



As a result, the historic determination of the appearance of the 

 neuters, original cause of the transformation of a family into a 

 society, cause of the existence of insect societies, is an insufficient 



