CONSTITUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF TERMITES. 289 
into one of the usual nests, constructed the day before and 
containing only nymphs. One of the pair began at first to 
advance hesitatingly, while the other stood perfectly still ; but 
shortly one after the other gradually moved forwards. 
The nymphs then began to scatter in different directions in 
the endeavour to keep as far away as possible from the royal 
pair; these gradually retreated to the bottom of the tube, 
where they were left alone. But now and again a nymph 
approached with open jaws, and savagely bit one of the pair 
in the head or thorax, getting bitten with equal fury in 
return, and consequently retreating. 
Next day the royal couple was still left unattended, but was 
no longer actually disturbed. Then a second similar pair was 
introduced ; at once the nymphs all became greatly excited, 
attacked them and promptly reduced them both to helpless- 
ness by biting off their legs. The second pair was alive two 
days later, and the queen of the first pair was seen to attack 
the second king with open jaws; he retreated by dragging 
himself along the tube, being unable to run through the loss 
of all his legs. A day later he was dead, and the first queen 
was observed nibbling the stumps of his legs ; on the following 
day the queen of the second pair was also found dead. 
Several repetitions of this experiment were made, and always 
gave similar results. Whenever two or three supernumerary 
royal pairs are put into a nest, a single pair is all that can be 
found at the end of a few days.] 
I infer from all these facts that Calotermites exhibit those 
phenomena of jealousy and hostility which are so well known 
in bees ; however, their manifestation is less rapid. 
The observations just recorded, and many other facts 
omitted for the sake of brevity, lead us to the fundamental 
conclusion that the colony of Calotermes tolerates 
neither supernumerary royal examples nor super- 
numerary soldiers. Both one and the other are 
slaughtered. On the one hand, then, the colony can 
provide itself with royal forms or soldiers when they 
are required (vide infra); on the other hand, it rids 
