16 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 
form when the winged individuals appear. Kirby indeed suggests, 
that as these insects belong to an order whose metamorphosis is semi- 
complete, the office of working for the society may devolve upon the 
larvee (Introd. vol. ii. p. 30.) ; and Latreille endeavours to account for 
the circumstance that, at the time of the winged individuals coupling, 
a great number of specimens remain in the nest under the form of 
larvee, by supposing that these ‘ne doivent subir leur derniére méta- 
* making them to be two years in ar- 
, 
morphose que l'année suivante ; 
riving at perfection, which is, however, but a mere supposition. As 
to the large headed individuals, their right to the name of neuters has 
been doubted by Huber. (Nouv. Obs. vol. ii. p. 444. note *.) Kirby 
says that in all respects they bear a stronger analogy to the larve than 
to the perfect insects, and after all may possibly turn out to be larve, 
perhaps of the males (Jntrod. vol. ii. p. 34. note *) ; and Burmeister 
observes that he does not see why these neuters should be merely de- 
fenders, as the neuters amongst all other social insects are the true 
workers (Manual of Ent. Transl. p.533.). As to the individuals 
which have lost their wings, Burmeister, who dissected one of them, 
did not find the least trace of external or internal genitalia, and is 
thence induced to believe that they are real neuters. I cannot, how- 
ever, adopt this opinion, nor the hypothesis which he has founded 
thereon, as I am inclined to think that his investigation of the internal 
anatomy of the individual was not sufficiently precise, and that this 
specimen was a male or female which had lost its wings in the 
usual way. Moreover, his hypothesis does not account for the exist- 
ence of the large headed individuals. On the other hand, I would 
even venture to suggest, from a knowledge of the modifications to 
which some individuals of the Orthoptera, Hemiptera, and Hymen- 
optera are subject, that these large headed individuals, as well as 
the so-called larvae, remain permanently apterous, without altering 
their form *, being like the wingless specimens of Velia currens 
retarded in their transformations, their development stopping short 
before their arrival at maturity, and thereby some individuals gaining 
an enlarged head in order to compensate for their ultimate want of 
wings; and that the real larve of the comparatively few specimens, 
which ultimately become winged, are as yet unknown.t} 
* The want of rudimental wing-cases and the structure of the head and mouth of 
the soldiers seem to me to prove this completely, at least as regards these indiyi- 
duals. 
+ The larve and neuters of Termes Viarum are described by Smeathman as pos- 
sessing eyes. 
