August — December 1SS9.] 



PSYCHE. 



251 



wanting in the supplementary queen ; 

 tiiey are always present in the supple- 

 mentary king and the true king. 



I have tried very many times to pro- 

 duce supplementary kings and queens, 

 but always with the same results, which 

 I have alread}' published. 



We will now take up my observations 

 on Tetnnes htcifugus. 



The nymphs of the second form 

 {Lesp^s) usually become mature about 

 the month of August, almost always in 

 the nymph form with longer or shorter 

 wings. Their comparison with the sup- 

 plementary kings and queens must there- 

 fore be accepted as proved, although it 

 depends here upon a complicated and 

 unusual phenomenon which gives the 

 colony of Terines liicifugus a very 

 peculiar appearance. I have studied 

 the termites for more than five years and 

 among thousands and thousands of Ter- 

 mes lucifiigus have never succeeded 

 in finding a true king or queen with 

 wing-stumps, that is to say the remain- 

 ing stumps after the perfect wings have 

 been torn oft'. 



In past years I have had many little 

 colonies of winged individuals confined 

 in cages and later in the natural course 

 met with true kings and queens. If 

 one looks for Termes lucifugus about 

 the middle of the month of May in the 

 dead wood of certain kinds of trees he 

 will find youngest larvae, larvae of 

 various stages, many young nymphs of 

 the second form , partly of the male and 

 partly of the female sex, and many in- 

 dividuals incapable of reproduction 

 (workers and soldiers) whilst in other 



trees, chiefly in the dead roots, in addi- 

 tion to all the above mentioned larval 

 stages and nymphs of the second form, 

 many masses of eggs in different stages 

 of development and hundreds or indeed 

 even thousands of mature females with 

 swollen abdomens and showing a certain 

 quantity of small roundish bodies 

 (spermatozoa) in their spermatheca. 



That the above mentioned eggs were 

 laid by these females one can easily con- 

 vince himself if lie will place some of 

 the latter in a frame with a few pieces 

 of moist tender wood — it is understood 

 that the transfer of the eggs has been 

 guarded against — and leave them undis- 

 turbed ; after one or two days they 

 begin egg-laying and soon find for 

 themselves different nests in the frame. 

 These females can be directly separated 

 from the nymphs of the second form, 

 possessing of course the characteristics 

 already mentioned by me in another 

 place, that is short wings, bi^own facet- 

 ted eyes, etc., and are to be compared 

 therefore with the supplementar}^ queens 

 (I shall call them complementaiy 

 queens.) 



In the pi'eceeding month, April, one 

 finds out of doors almost the same con- 

 ditions except that the nymphs of the 

 second form (there exist nevertheless 

 many larvae capable of reproduction) 

 and the eggs are wanting, whilst the 

 winged forms swarm in hundreds or 

 thousands. 



During the winter months (from De- 

 cember to March) the termite colony 

 appears to us almost exactly as it does 

 in April, in place of the winged forms 



