ANIMAL SOCIETIES — SNODGRASS 431 



On finding it tliey rapidly excavate the interior with galleries. Thus 

 they may secretly invade the woodwork of a house without being dis- 

 covered until they have done much damage. In other cases large 

 colonies of termites seem to live contentedly in damp places under logs 

 or discarded boards lying on the ground. In the Tropics some species 

 construct nests above ground built of earth particles cemented with 

 saliva, and such nests may reach a height of 20 feet or more. The 

 habits of termites, however, are so various that it is impossible to give 

 in brief a general description that will fit them all. 



The termite society, as that of the ants and bees, is built on the caste 

 system, but otherwise it has no likeness to that of these other social 

 insects. The termites are related to the cockroaches, and have de- 

 veloped their own social ways. 



The newly matured winged males and females swarm out of the nest 

 in the spring and associate in pairs to found new colonies. The two 

 of a voluntarily wedded pair drop to the earth, break olf their wings 

 as useless organs for future underground life, and together excavate 

 a hole in the ground. Here copulation takes place, and the queen 

 then proceeds with her business of egg laying. From the eggs are 

 produced five different forms of individuals characteristic of the ter- 

 mite colony. The first form is that of the parent pair, known as the 

 kmg and queen, that fomided the colony, or their successors. Next 

 are two potentially fertile forms termed "supplemental reproduc- 

 tives." One of these has wing pads, or undeveloped wings ; the other 

 is wingless. The function of the supplementals is to replace the pri- 

 mary kmg or queen if anytliing happens to them. This is a wise 

 provision that the other social insects have failed to make. Termites 

 of the fourth and fifth kinds are true castes; those of the first are 

 workers ; those of the second are soldiers. Individuals of these castes 

 are wingless young forms, or nymphs, arrested in their development, 

 having nonfunctional reproductive organs, but structurally consti- 

 tuted for their respective duties. 



Though the primary food of the termites is dead wood or other 

 dead vegetable matter, the members of the colony have an elaborate 

 system of feeding one another with products of their own digestion. 

 Such substances include saliva, regiu^gitated food, feces, and par- 

 ticularly exudates from their skin which are licked oft' by other 

 members of the colony. The exudates of the queen are most copious 

 and the most highly desired. The queen therefore is always sur- 

 rounded by a host of licking workers. In some species she becomes 

 enormously enlarged with age and the development of her ovaries. 

 It is this mutual food exchange that binds the members of the colony 

 toirether. 



