34 Riley — Presidential Address. 



The fecundity of the true queeu Termite is sonietliing remark- 

 able, and, based on tSmeathman's observations on an African 

 species (Tennrs hellicosiis) the fact that an egg is produced every 

 second, or some 80,000 a day in tlie height of tlie breeding 

 season, has been commonly ((uoted among writers on the suljject. 

 In this species the queen is sealed up in a cell which is as hard 

 as a stone, in the central and most protected part of the termi- 

 tary, the cell being opened and enlarged from time to time by 

 the workers, and being also perforated l)y holes which admit the 

 workei's to care foi' and feed her, while preventing the egress of 

 the female and her attendant male escort. 



Among the more curious facts connected with these Termites, 

 because of their exceptional nature, is the late development of the 

 internal sexual organs in the reproductive forms and the existence 

 of a single long-lived male — a condition not parelleled among 

 other insects, so far as I am aware. Further, as Dr. Hagen has 

 pointed out, the ([ueen represents a uui([ue instance among insects 

 of actual growth taking place in the inuigo state; for the in- 

 tra-segmental ligaments not only expand, but grow with the in- 

 creasing gravity of the abdomen, the stigmata actually taking- 

 part in this growth, though the dorsal abdominal plates remain 

 unaffected. 



In the Hive Bee multiplication of colonies takes place by divi- 

 sion, but the colonizing swarm carries in itself all the elements 

 necessary for the foundation of a new colony. In the more typi- 

 cal Termites multiplication of colonies also takes place by division, 

 but this is carried out by the neuters and the various adolescent 

 stages, since there is usually but one true queen, which can not 

 be moved. The new colony, therefore, can only obtain a true 

 queen by introducing one of the royal pairs that wander about 

 after they have swarmed and thrown off their wings. That great 

 diflQculty attends the establishment of such a royal pair of indi- 

 viduals in a colony is illustrated by the fact that they are rarely 

 discovered among colonies of our commoner s])ecies of Termes 

 proper.* 



*Froin the accounts of authors there is no ditiiculty iu lin(Hn2; the true 

 queen in most of the nest buiUhng species of Euteruies in the \>'e.st Indies, 

 Central and iSouth America; while from Sraeathman's famous account oi' 

 Ternu'ft Itcllicnsus in Africa, it would seem that the fertile ((ueen is usually 

 present iu the colonies. But in the species most studied, viz., TcruH's lucifu- 



