PLATYPTERA. 



95 



since it correlates with their habits. They are more 

 exclusively confined to their nests than the ants, and, 

 like cave animals, being protected from the action of 

 the atmosphere and light, they are colorless or only 

 slightly colored. The exceptional coloring of the per- 

 fect males and females, like the coloring of the jaws 

 in larvae before they begin to feed, is probably due to 

 inheritance, the vestiges of a time when they lived an 

 open and freer existence, and had not yet arrived at 

 the remarkable stage of specialization which they now 

 exhibit. The king, or perfect male (Fig. 49, Tennes 



dims) possesses wings, as already stated, but these 

 serve only the purpose of reproduction. They are 

 not essential either as respiratory or as locomotive 

 organs, and are used only for a single aerial excursion 

 called the " marriage flight." The queen (Fig. 50, 

 queen of Tennes bellicosiis, natural size) has a small 

 head {A) and thorax {b\ d'\ d'"), but the abdomen (C) 

 at the time of egg-bearing is immensely distended ; 

 rW are the plates of the abdominal rings, which were 

 close together before oviferation began. At the time 

 of egg- bearing a peristaltic motion of the abdomen 



