CONSTITUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF TERMITES. 15 



or with more or less evident rudiments of wings) may be found 

 in process of elevation to this dignity. 



7. In a few tubes (2, 3, or 4 per cent.) no substitute 

 forms are developed, in spite of the presence of individuals 

 apparently capable of undergoing that destiny. 



I have established the fact that there is no development of 

 royal forms during May and June in tube-nests which contain 

 only nymphs. 



And here I ask the reader to admire the talents of these 

 little animals ! 



What is the use of furnishing royal substitutes when all the 

 inhabitants of the colony will soon become fully winged, and 

 will disperse to found new nests ? An occasional nymph may 

 be sacrificed to become a substitute form. But that takes 

 place only at a time remote from the swarm-period, or when 

 there are younger examples present. 



A few nests, indeed, form no substitutes, and that without 

 any justifiable motive. I am unable to decipher their inten- 

 tions, but the fact remains that these republics, imbued, as 

 they seem to be, with Malthusian doctrines, find their parallel 

 in certain beehives which cease to concern themselves with the 

 possession of a queen. 



8. In nests formed of individuals presumably free from Pro- 

 tozoa (that is immediately before, during, or after an 

 ecdysis) a certain number of incipient substitute forms (at first 

 larval, and later immature forms) appeared without any marked 

 delay. They preserved themselves free from Protozoa for some 

 time at least, but the other occupants became infected simul- 

 taneously with the appearance of these incipient substitutes. 



9. Even if all the inmates of the nest contain Protozoa, 

 some of the usual substitute forms are produced without 

 material delay. 



10. In the eighth case the appearance of Protozoa was due 

 either to their unsuspected presence in some individual which 

 infected the others, or to the accidental inclusion in the nest of 

 fresh dejecta of examples containing Protozoa (the nests having 

 been made with wood previously inhabited by Calotermites). 



