TERMITES OR WHITE ANTS. 673 



and after three or four months again examined the nests. In three out 

 of the five cases substitution pairs exactly resembling the original ones. 

 with well-formed wing- stumps, were present; in the other two cases I 

 could not find a royal cell, and believe that the loss had not been 

 repaired. 



Natural neoteinic forms are very abundantly found in some species, 

 especially in those whose soldiers have a saddle-shaped pronotum and 

 are mandibulated. In forms with nasute soldiers I found neoteinic 

 (ineens in only two species, T. horneensis and T. matangewis. Neo- 

 teinic queens are generally raised in considerable numbers, and become 

 fewer in number as they grow older. They are always found in the 

 same part of the nest, although, unless few in number, they can not 

 all occupy the same cell. 



By neoteinic individuals I mean fertile individuals the condition of 

 whose thorax makes it clear that they have never been capable of 

 flight. Though the true queens are alwa}*s accompanied by kings, 

 the neoteinic queens are often consortless. The}' maj T be accompanied 

 by one or more true kings, or by one or more neoteinic kings; but 

 the kings are almost invariably less numerous than the queens, and are 

 in many cases wholly absent. This last conclusion indeed rests on 

 negative evidence only, and in the case in which I am most positive 

 (T. matangensis, Nos. 358 and 359) neither eggs nor young larvae were 

 present in the nests, though wingless males and females were abundant. 



The function of the soldiers I believe to be defense, and defense 

 only. Some able observers have arrived at a different conclusion, 

 but on what grounds I am not clear. There is a vast difference in 

 functions of offense and functions of defense; the most successful 

 defense is to prevent attack; defense has half failed when attacks 

 must be repulsed. The great enemies of termites are ants; and the 

 functions of the soldiers seem to me to be to defend any openings in 

 the nests by putting their heads in the way whilst the workers build 

 fortifications. Those soldiers which have a saddle-shaped pronotum 

 and well-developed mandibles are very sluggish, and seem quite use 

 less when a nest is opened. It is the nests to which these belong that 

 birds are most fond of; but while broken nests may lie used to bait 

 bird traps, unbroken nests seem sufficiently strong to resist the birds. 



Those soldiers which have a saddle-shaped pronotum and rudimen- 

 tary mandibles secrete a clear viscid fluid from a sac which occupies a 

 great part of the head, and opens by a duct which passes down the 

 rostrum. The soldiers may be seen to dab a little of the fluid on the 

 antenna 1 of their enemies hy a quick movement which is clearly a 

 modification of the shaking movement so often seen in worker ter- 

 mites. By this means such enemies as ants are placed hors de combat 

 when the} T do not, as they generally do. avoid these soldiers. But 

 such a mode of defense would seem quite useless in dealing with birds 

 sm 1901 13 



