236 THE entomologist's recoed. 



nest, and these, when they reach the winged state, leave the parent 

 community in a manner similar to the cases already described. 



Until quite recently it was generally considered that swarming 

 probably took place, as in the case of true ants, in order (1) to increase 

 the number of communities, and (2) to promote cross-fertilisation 

 between the males and females of different communities, but recent 

 observers (among others Grassi) believe that this is not so, and that 

 the superfluous individuals which leave a colony are entirely destroyed 

 by various enemies of the termites. Fritz Miiller goes so far as to 

 assert that, in the case of the majority of species known to him, the 

 founding of a colony by means of a pair from a swarm would be just about 

 as practicable as to establish a new colony of human beings by placing 

 a couple of newly-born babes on an uninhabited island. Yet Sharp 

 says {Camhridije Natural Hiatori/, Insects, i., p. 36-1) that, "after the 

 winged insects leave the colony, they associate themselves in pairs, 

 each of which should, if all goes well, start a new colony ; " and he 

 further adds : " It is not improbable that Smeathmann may be 

 correct, and that, in the case of some species, mature individuals may 

 re-enter the nest after swarming and become royal couples. On the 

 whole, however, it appears probable that communities of long standing 

 are kept up by the substitution royalty system, and that new 

 communities, when established, are usually founded by a pair from a 

 swarm, which, at first, are not in that completely helpless condition to 

 which they come when they afterwards reach the state of so- 

 called royalty. Grassi's observations as to the sources of food 

 remove, in fact, one of the difficulties that existed previously in 

 regard to the founding of new colonies, for we now know that a 

 couple may possibly bear with them a sufficient supply of proctodseal 

 and stomodacal aliment to last them till workers are hatched to feed 

 them, and till soldiers are developed and the community gradually 

 assumes a complex condition. Professor Perez has recently obtained 

 the early stages of a community gradually from a winged pair, after 

 they had been placed in captivity unattended by workers. Miiller's 

 observation (previously quoted), is no doubt correct in relation to royal 

 pairs after they have been such for some time ; but that helplessness 

 is itself only gradually acquired by the royal pair who are, at first, 

 able to shift for themselves and produce a few workers without any 

 assistance." This conclusion of Sharp's appears to us to be the most 

 logical one that could possibly be formed in the present state of our 

 knowledge, and, if it be correct, it results that the cause and result of 

 the swarming and migration of the termites are, indeed, very closely 

 analogous to the same phenomena as observed in the true ants. This 

 is also the view of Bates, who notes {yatiiraliat on tJie Amazons, 

 p. 110) of the Brazilian termites which he found at Caripi, that 

 " the white ant is endowed with wings simply for the purpose of flying 

 away from the colony, peopled by its wingless companions, to pair 

 with individuals of the same or other colonies, and thus propagate and 

 disseminate its kind. The winged individuals are males and females, 

 whilst the great bulk of their wingless fraternity are of no sex, but are 

 of two castes, soldiers and workers, which are restricted to the functions 

 of building the nests, nursing, and defending the young brood. The 

 two sexes mate whilst on the ground after the wings are shed ; and 

 then the married couples, if they escape the numerous enemies which 



