314 B. GRASSI AND A. SANDIAS. 
termes; and I imagine that the quivering of both species 
produces a sound which is perceptible to the tympanal organ 
of the tibia, but is inaudible to the human ear. 
Termites, moreover, may communicate by means of the 
antenne. Thus, if a few are placed on a table, they usually 
arrange themselves in single files, which circle round the 
objects standing thereon ; and, in such a case, if two Termites 
moving in opposite directions chance to meet, they recipro- 
cally touch their antennz and then continue each on its own 
course (vide also previous statements). 
Tasks necessary for the common welfare, with a few excep- 
tions, are undertaken by all the inmates of the colony ; but the 
soldiers are unable to gnaw wood, owing to the great elonga- 
tion of their mandibles. 
Substitute or complemental royal forms have never been 
seen to prepare wood-meal, or to transport it, or ova,&c. Yet 
all these duties are carried out by the perfect insects with fully 
developed wings, before or after they have been shed. Newly- 
born larve may easily be found carrying about wood powder. 
[The soldiers serve for defence, like those of Calotermes. 
Two soldiers, one a Termite, the other a Calotermite, were put 
together in a small glass vessel. They accidentally came into 
contact and began to fight. The Termite, having the advan- 
tage of great quickness in movement, whereas Calotermes is 
sluggish, bit off some of its enemy’s legs, and was proceeding 
to further hostilities, when the other seized an opportune 
moment and cut its head off. On other occasions the soldiers 
of Calotermes tore the abdomen of the soldiers of Termes 
to pieces. 
The soldiers’ mandibles may appropriately be likened to a 
powerful pair of shears. Termite soldiers become formidable 
when put into one of the customary little nests of Calo- 
termes deprived of soldiers, rapidly cutting off the antennz 
of numerous examples, and biting them in various places. 
But if they are few in number, the Calotermites eventually 
reduce them to helplessness by shearing off their mandibles, 
and then pursue, tear, and kill them. 
