72 Riley — Premlcnfud Address. 



them a sincrle true kins. i. e., with distinct wing-stumps. " Instead of a 

 royal ])alaee" he says, "in which the king Uved in chaste matrimony with 

 Ills ecjual consort, I iiad a harem before my ej^es in which a sultan satisfied 

 himself wirh numerous coquettes." This observation would seem to indi- 

 cate that, in the economy of the Termite colony, a true king and queen may 

 not only be replaced by supplementary kings and queens, but that this 

 substitution may take place for both sexes at the same time, or for each sex 

 separately. 



1 would obseive, in this connection, that during the swarming season 

 many species of true ants forcibly detain some of the winged males and fe- 

 males and prevent their leaving the formicary by biting otftlieir wings, and 

 that the pairs thus forcibly detained supply the colony with eggs. A simi- 

 lar condition may j^revail among the Termites, and if so, would throw light 

 on some of the f;icts whicli have been observed. ' 



Influence of Food and Tkeat.vient. — The effect of food and treatment 

 has less, perha|>s, to do with the ditferentiation of individuals among ter- 

 mites tiian among the bees, wasjis or ants. 



All Termite larva- are supposed to partake of the same kind of food, as to 

 the nature of whic^h there is conflict of opinion, due doubtless to the vary- 

 ing habits in the different species. From my own observations on Termes 

 and Eutermes, I am inclined to believe that, as in the Social Hyu)enoptera, 

 the food and treatment of the young larva, during the first stage more par- 

 ticulai'ly, have much to do in determining the development or suppression 

 of the sexual organs, and, us a consequence, in determining the character 

 of the full grown inilividual. The eg^s are, first of all, brought together in 

 special parts of the termitary, and it is quite probable that tlie workers ex- 

 ercise some judgment and discrimination in the groujiing, as has been 

 proved to be the case with Hymenoptera, with a view to future larval treat- 

 ment. Judging from the delicacy of their mouth-parts and of the general 

 integument, the young are at first more or less dependent upon either the 

 fore^iought or the direct action of the adults, and I cannot resist the con- 

 clusion that the infancy of the termites is dependent, as it is in the 

 Social Hymenoptera, if not to the .same extent; for they have soon perished 

 where I have hatched them away from adults, and have develope<l where 

 the adults had access to them. 1 kit further exact observations, which, in 

 the nature of the case, it is diliicult to make, are needed before definite con- 

 clusions can be drawn. Fritz ■\iiiller believes that the young feed on a 

 funsfus which develops on the walls of the cells, a peculiar white fungus being 

 not uncommon in such situations, though I have more often found nothing 

 of the sort where the young were abundant. 



iVlr. Hubbarii found many small hard bodies among the eggs of Eutermes 

 nppeiin which were recognized as the sclerotium of a fungus by Prof. F. G. 

 Farlow, and other observers have referred to the presence of fungi in Ter- 

 mite nests. jNlr. Hubbard also records the feeding of the young upon hard 

 and tough rounded masses found in the nests of the above-named species. 

 They could not do so, however, without the assistance of the nasuti or work- 

 ers to soften these nodules, for tbeii- mouthparts are too feeble, while the 

 noilules are of very irregular occurrence and in some nests not present at 

 all. Where the young are crowding, the material of the nest is moister 

 than elsewhere and their chief food must be a liquid regui'gitated from 

 the mouth, by the workers or by the partly developed sexed individuals, 

 just as in the social Hymenoptera, and either taken directly or from the 

 moistened substance of the cavities. Indeed, though Mr. P. H. Dudley in 

 some interesting observations on Eutermes on the Isthmus of Panama 

 (Journal N. Y. Micros. Soc. V. p. ()2, April, 1889) describes the nasuti as 

 being able to lire an " offensive glutinous shot, which puts an antagonist 

 twice his size horti de comlxd," I have never been able to confirm this 

 statement. The nasuti have seemed to me defenseless and I suspect that 

 the liquid so readily secreted from the tip of the nose is chiefly designed for 

 nourishment. That comminuted, decayed wood, as well as the faeces are 



