338 Insects and their Surroundings 



Termites. — It is remarkable that social life among 

 insects should be almost confined to the Hymenoptera. 

 The only other insects in which organised communities 

 are known to exist are the Termites (fig. 178) belong- 

 ing to the comparatively lowly order of Platyptera. 

 The habits of these insects are in many respects like 

 those of the ants, and they are often known as 

 "white ants," a most misleading term, since struc- 

 turally they differ as much from ants as beavers do 

 from men. Moreover their communities differ pro- 

 foundly from the 



- -.V — 'V"- 



''.y'^^y \\ and females may 



ants' in composition. 

 The young nymphs 

 (fig. 177) are all 

 alike and both males 



develop into 

 workers (fig. 178 c) 

 or soldiers (in- 

 dividuals with large 

 heads and powerful 

 mandibles, fig. 

 178 rt'); both of 



Fig. ■s.nT.—Tcrmes flavipes, Koll. a. newly- fV,pcp racff>c rivf> 



hatched nymph, from above; /-. from '■iltJbC CdbttS are 



beneath ; c. egg, magnified zo times ; foot wingleSS and incap- 



and tip of hind-body shown, more highly i i r i 



magnified. From Marlatt, Bull. 4 (n.s.), able Ot reprodUC- 



Div. Ent. U.S. Dept. Agr. ^-^^^^ ^ -fOyal 



pair" — rarely more than one — are the parents of the 

 colony ; they are usually confined in a central cell in 

 the nest, having shed their wings after the marriage 

 flight. The " queen " (fig. 178 a) is one of the most 

 remarkable of insects, her hind-body being immensely 

 swollen and her ovaries producing eggs at the rate 

 sometimes of one a second. In case of disaster to 

 the royal pair a number of advanced nymphs are 

 kept in readiness to take their place, the reproductive 



