252 



PSYCHE. 



[August — December 1SS9. 



you find nymphs, that is nymphs of the 

 first form. In general the development 

 of the termites ceases during the winter 

 months. For the autumn months my 

 observations are incomplete. It is never- 

 theless certain that in the month of 

 August the nymphs of the second form 

 have already become complementary 

 kings and queens ; they conceal them- 

 selves in the remotest parts of the nest, 

 copulate and the queen lays eggs until 

 November. The complementar}^ kings 

 as a rule die before the beginning of 

 vs^inter, only a few live until December. 

 I have never found one of them after 

 the month of December. 



Taking all these important facts to- 

 gether and many others which I have 

 but partially giVen here we come to the 

 following conclusions ; the termite col- 

 ony produces yearly an immense num- 

 ber of sexually mature individuals. 

 Those mature in spring, acquire com- 

 pletely developed wings (winged forms) 

 and leave the mother nest in order as 

 kings and queens to form a new colony, 

 a happiness however they but rarely 

 share (in this 1 partly agree with Fritz 

 Miiller). 



But those which mature in summer 

 acquire only wing-pads, remain in the 

 nest, copulate and reproduce (comple- 

 mentary kings and queens). The com- 

 plementary kings die before the begin- 

 ning of winter so that the queens are 

 left alone ; the latter cease to lay eggs 

 during the winter and spring, but in 

 May they commence again when they 

 make use of the spermatozoa they have 

 had in their spermatheca since the pre- 



ceding fall. How long these comple- 

 mentary queens are able to live I do not 

 surely know, but you find some of a 

 dusky (yellowish-brown) color, some- 

 what like the nyinphs of the second 

 form, and others wholly of a dark 

 brown color, many of these have longer 

 wings than the others and this occurs 

 not only with the dark brown forms but 

 also w^ith those of a yellowish brown 

 color. All the complementary queens 

 which are found in the same colony 

 have very nearly the same color and but 

 little variation in the length of the 

 wings. Whilst therefore the difference 

 in color in the complementary queens 

 might at first sight lead us to think that 

 they live several years, mv additional 

 facts make it much more probable that 

 thev die about the month of August and 

 certainly by the time the new comple- 

 mentary kings and queens mature. The 

 diflerence in color shows therefore a 

 simple variation just as the diflerence in 

 the length of the wings. However we 

 will leave the definite solution of this 

 question for future research and we 

 come now to the results of the yearlv 

 production of complementary kings and 

 queens. We will suppose that in one 

 place tree A is found invaded by 

 Tcrmes^ then we shall see after a cer- 

 tain time, that is when the population 

 (living colony) in the above tree A has 

 reached a certain size, the colony ex- 

 tends to the neighboring tree B ; the 

 complementary queen however remains 

 in the first tree A. The extension takes 

 place either under ground or directly 

 in the air thus it frequentlv happens 



