BIOLOGY OF THE TERMITES OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 67 
distended abdomens, an indication of displacement by actual post- 
adult growth (%). In tropical species of Eutermes the enormous de- 
velopment of the ovaries in old queens crowds the digestive and ex- 
cretory organs to the ventral surface of the abdomen. 
Situated on the vertex of the epicranium is a small depression 
which appears as a rather prominent white spot, under the binocular 
microscope, in workers, nymphs, and neoteinic royal individuals of 
flavipes. This depression, slightly larger in diameter than an ocellus, 
is also present in the soldiers and in colonizing individuals. This 
is the ‘‘retrocerebral gland’”’* mentioned by Grassi, as a ‘‘“* * * 
[gland of unknown function,” [existing in lucifugus] ‘(only ?) in the 
nymph of the first form, 
the perfect insect, and 
the soldier. It elimi- 
nates a transparent se- 
cretion which can be 
squirted out for some 
distance.’’] 
While the abdomens 
of neoteinic queens ap- 
parently never become 
as elongate as in true 
queens, they become as 
much distended, but 
have not the oblong or 
quadrate shape, being 
more oval, or wider 
near the end of the ab- 
domen, which tapers 

Fig. 13.—Leucotermes flavipes: Fertilized, true queen; dorsal (a), ven- 
markedly. At the end tral (b), and lateral (c) views of abdomen. Drawn from specimen 
of the abdomen of true preserved for three years in alcohol. Note position of spiracles. 
(Original. ) 
queens the chitinized 
parts are more compressed or fused than in the neoteinic forms. 
Fertilized, neoteinic queens, developed from nymphs of the second 
form, range in length from 9 to 12 millimeters. The males are of the 
same length as the nymphs from which they develop; their abdomens 
are compressed laterally and taper toward the end, and ‘‘ therefore 
seem to have a more narrow ridged back’’ (Odenbach). 
Neoteinic or supplementary royal individuals are obtained from an 
arrested early stage in the development of the nymphs of the first 

@ Homologous to the small head gland of worker-like larvee of Eutermes, which lar- 
vee develop to nasuti, with a nose-like process (?). 
b Grassi, B., and Sandias, A. Op. cit., p. 317. 
