CONSTITUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF TERMITES. 37 



In a preliminary note I have recorded what has been made 

 out about tlie neoteinic forms from the works of those who 

 have "previously studied the subject, and especially from the 

 paper by Fritz Miiller, and I repeat my remarks textually. 



"To the genius of Fritz Miiller belongs the credit of having 

 conceived the novel, brilliant, and most plausible hypothesis of 

 the royal supplemental pairs in the Termite kingdom, an hypo- 

 thesis supported partly by the observations of other writers, 

 and partly by his own.^ 



''In Termes lucifugus, a South European species, Lespes 

 discovered two kinds of nymphs, which he called respectively 

 the nymph of the first and the nymph of the second form. 

 The former was more active and slender, and possessed long 

 and broad wing-rudiments, which completely covered the base 

 of the abdomen ; it became a perfect insect and left the nest 

 from about the 15th to the 20th of May. The nymph of the 

 second form was much rarer, its abdomen was larger and 

 heavier, and the wing-rudimeuts were short, narrow, and 

 situated at the sides of the thorax. When first found in 

 February the latter nymphs were equal to the others in 

 length (6 — 7 mm.), but subsequently exceeded them (8 — 10 

 mm.), simply through enlargement of the abdomen, especially 

 in the female. The abdominal tergites were then insufficient 

 to cover the sides of the body, and were distinctly separated 

 from each other by soft membranous interspaces. In fact, a 

 dilation of the abdomen bad taken place which corresponded 

 with a much greater development of the testes and ovaries 

 than that existing in the nymphs of the first form. The nymphs 

 of the second form remained unaltered till July, when they 

 turned brown, but they gradually became very much rarer. 

 Although Lespes did not continue his observations beyond that 

 month, he supposed that these nymphs were metamorphosed in 

 August into winged males and females, and swarmed like those 

 of the first form. From the latter he derived the small kings 

 and queens occasionally found in the nests; from those of the 

 second form he derived the large kings and queens. This 

 » ' Jen. Zeitschr.,' 1873, Beitr. ill. 



