68 



JOURNAL OF THE 



[April, 



she can digest large quantities of food — two or three times the 

 bulk of the eggs produced. 



But one observation has been obtained upon the rate of egg- 

 laying by any of the queens on the Isthmus. Immediately after 

 one of the queen-cells was broken open, the captured queen 

 deposited fifty eggs in a period of ten minutes. She was ob- 

 served for five minutes longer, but no more eggs were produced. 

 This was under abnormal circumstances, and cannot be taken 

 as a normal rate. There is no question, however, about one 

 queen being able to produce countless numbers of eggs. For 

 her abdomen is but a vast aggregation of egg-tubes, containing 



Fig. 8.— Head of Eutermes soldier (nasutus), X25, showing Ave large tactile hairs upon 

 the cranium; also the tube of "the gun," in the interior of the head, appearing 

 through the chitine. The upper figure is a side view, and the lower figure a 

 top view of the same species. 



ova from the merest germs to those nearly developed. The 

 bundles of egg-tubes form two series, one on either side of the 

 median line, until they are united near the posterior portion of 

 the abdomen by a common oviduct, through which the eggs 

 pass to be fertilized before oviposition. At the upper or blind 

 end of the egg-tubes the germs are so small that several are con- 

 tained in the caliber of the tube ; but, as the germs increase in 

 size, the number becomes less, until three eggs fill the caliber of 

 the tube — then two, and finally one, where they are joined like 



