OBSERVATIONS ON TERMITES, OR WHITE ANTS. 



Bv G. D. Haviland, M. A., M. B., F. L. S. a 



The Termitidse, commonly known as -white ants," are insects feed- 

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

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

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

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

 except in the soldiers of some species. Maxilhe 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 ot small papilla 

 near the center of its posterior border. 



Males with a pair of compound eyes placed just above the antennal 

 fossae, 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 

 vest are superposed and project far beyond the apex of the abdomen 

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

 transverse basal line, leaving subtriangular wing stumps Ihe vas 

 deferens opens behind the ventral plate of the 9th abdominal segment 

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



copulatory organs. ™„tml 



Females when young closely resemble the males. Ihe ventral 

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

 h lives are small and separated. When the female becomes he mothei 

 of a colony her abdomen enlarges by dilatation of the cnt.de between 

 the chitinous plates, and sometimes there is secondary chitmizatmn 

 extending forward from the anterior borders ot the P^ s - 



The soldiers are sterile, wingless, and tor the most part blmiL 

 Their head is chitinous and strong, peculiarly and varmuslymodtfed 



■From Journal Linnean Society, Zoology, Vol. XXVI, 1897-us. 



667 



