CONSTITUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF TERMITES, 279 
I must regard certain nests which may be found at the end 
of October, as having arisen from pairs which had only begun 
to lay eggs in May of the year following the swarm-period. 
In these the number of inmates is less than in the nests pre- 
viously referred to, and no larva possesses more than fourteen 
antennal joints, the third being glabrous, and the constric- 
tions between the 3rd, 4th, and 5th respectively being ill- 
marked. The wing-rudiments of these larve are not yet 
discernible, and the soldiers of such nests do not possess more 
than twelve antennal joints, and are small. 
The hypothesis that such nests may have originated from 
royal pairs disclosed only during the preceding summer, 
instead of the previous year, and consequently only three or 
four months old, is quite untenable ; as is indicated by the 
fact that nests are never found to contain only newly hatched 
or little-grown larve at the end of autumn, as must of neces- 
sity be the case if young can be born in the year in which the 
nest is founded. In short, the fact remains that at the end of 
autumn certain nests are found to possess undeveloped eggs 
only, whereas others already contain small soldiers, and larvee 
with fourteen antennal joints: nests intermediate between 
these two classes are entirely wanting, though they should be 
present if the above hypothesis were correct, inasmuch as the 
swarm-period lasts from the end of July till that of October. 
In March, 1891, I observed an absence of nymphs in the 
examination of several nests orphaned two years previously 
(occasionally they were present in very small numbers). 
These nests contained ova and forms in all other stages. It 
therefore appears that destruction of the royal pair in spring 
results in the suppression of swarming during July and 
August of the second succeeding year, but in those months 
only, because examples in which the wings are only just 
indicated in March will have become imagines by September 
and October. 
Nests orphaned between February and June sometimes con- 
tain no eggs, and usually no new-born larve in the following 
winter. 
