OBSERVATrONS OX TFJIMITES, OK WHITE ANTS. 



Bv G. D. Havilam). M. A.. M. !'».. F. L. S.'' 



The Termitidte. commonly known as '"white ants." are insects feed- 

 ing on wood and dead vegetable matter, living socially in colonies 

 of sterile and fertile individuals, which grow very slowly and have no 

 pupa stage. Antennie situated in a shallow fossa at the side of the 

 head just above the base of the mandibles. Mandibles powerful, 

 except in the soldiers of some species. MaxilUe with double chitinous 

 hooks and long 5-segmented palpi. Head hinged to the prothorax by 

 means of a pair of lateral cervical sclerites. Tarsi of 4 segments, the 

 distal as long as the three proximal together. Pronotum, mesonotum, 

 and metanotum distinct. Abdomen of 10 segments; the ventral plate 

 of the basal segment absent; that of the apical segment divided, and 

 bearing at the lateral ends a pair of short cerci; that of the 9th seg- 

 ment in the larva, and often in the adult, with a pair of small i)apill{A? 

 near the center of its posterior border. 



Males with a pair of conn)ound eves placed just a])ov(^ the antennal 

 fossa', and for the most part a pair of ocelli situated near their inner 

 borders. Frequently there is a median fenestra. When young there 

 are two pairs of large, membranous, nearly equal wings, which in 

 rest are superposed and project far beyond the apex of the abdomen. 

 These wings are used in Hying from the nest, and then shed across a 

 transverse basal line, leaving subtriangular wing stumps. The vas 

 deferens opens behind the ventral plate of the yth abdominal segment. 

 The males live permanently along with the females, but there are no 

 copulatory organs. 



Females when 3"oung closely resemble the males. The ventral 

 plates of the 8th and 9th abdominal segments are divided, and the 

 halves are small and separated. When the female becomes the mother 

 of a colony her abdomen enlarges by dilatation of the cuticle between 

 the chitinous plates, and sometimes there is secondary' chitinization 

 extending forward from theimterior borders of the plates. 



The soldiers are sterile, wingless, and for the most part blind. 

 Their head is chitinous and strong, peculiarh' and variously modified 



" From Journal Linnean Society, Zoology, Vol. XXVI, 1897-98. 



667 



