38 B. GRASSI AND A. SANDIAS. 



supposition was based on the lesser development of the gonads 

 in the small king and queen, just as in the nymph of the first 

 form, and on their much greater development, as in the 

 nymph of the second form, in the large king and queen, or 

 as he terms them simply, the king and queen. But these 

 degrees of development may be explained, as Miiller remarks, 

 simply by differences of age and of the seasons when the 

 observations were made. 



" Moreover Hagen and Miiller observe that the royal forms 

 possess wing-stumps, and this presupposes a degree of deve- 

 lopment of the wings which appears unattainable by the 

 nymph of the second form, of which the wing-buds are still 

 very short in July. To the writers quoted must be added 

 Bobe-Moreau,^ who studied a species, presumably Termes 

 lucifugus, in South Europe, but failed to observe the second 

 swarming conjectured by Lespes to take place. 



"According to Miiller, the nymph of the second form 

 remains wingless and never abandons the nest, in 

 which he believes it to become sexually mature 

 under certain circumstances. He adds that fertile 

 examples with the appearance of a nymph have been described 

 as the queen iu different species, not only in Termes luci- 

 fugus (Joly),^ but in T. flavipes, T. arenarius, and Calo- 

 termes flavicoUis (?). Miiller does not believe that the 

 swarming of Termitidae can lead to the foundation of new 

 nests; whilst he does not positively (geradezu) deny the 

 possibility of this happening in Calotermes, he absolutely 

 excludes it for all species of Termes, Eutermes, and Ano- 

 plotermes, studied by himself. The effect of swarming in 

 his opinion is simply to provide royal pairs for unoccupied 

 thrones, and the colony must avoid the enormous amount of 

 labour and the serious consumption of its members entailed 

 by swarming, and be certain of possessing a king and queen by 

 the retention in the nest of a royal pair produced therein. 

 Now this pair is the offspring of the same parents, inasmuch 



^ [' Memoire sur les Termites observes a Rochefort, &c./ 1843.J 

 2 ['Mem. Ac. Sci. Toulouse' (3), v (1849). pp. 1—37, pis. i— iii.] 



