Ur sae 
Exhibitions, ete. 
Dr. D. Sharp exhibited a collection of White Ants (Ter- 
mites) formed by Mr. G. D. Haviland in Singapore, which 
comprised about ten or twelve species, of most of which the 
various forms were obtained. He alluded to the bearing of 
the specimens found by Mr. Haviland on the question recently 
discussed by Mr. Herbert Spencer and Professor Weismann, 
as to the mode of development of the various forms of 
individuals of social insects. Mr. Spencer, he said, considers 
that these are due to nutrition at a later stage of the 
development than that at which the sex of the individual 
is determined. Dr. Sharp added that Professor Grassi has 
quite recently informed us that he has found, as the result 
of seven years’ observations on the two European Ter- 
mitids, Calotermes flavicollis and Termes lucifugus, that these 
white ants obtain, when necessary, workers and soldiers from 
individuals destined in the ordinary course to become perfect 
insects, and that they do this by varying the quantity and 
quality of the food supplied to the creatures that are to be 
thus deviated from the normal course of their development. 
In some cases, the Termites thus produce what Grassi calls 
neoteinic queens, that is fertile females, that in some portions 
of the development of the body still retain the immature 
condition ; this transformation the white ants can effect at 
more than one stage of the life-history, but, nevertheless, it 
would appear that they prefer to operate at a particular stage. 
Mr. Haviland’s collection contains examples of these neoteinic 
queens, he having found in one nest, instead of a single 
normal queen, eleven of these neoteinic individuals, thus 
confirming Grassi’s statement, that when the ants produce 
these ‘‘ substitution royalties,’ they operate on numerous 
couples, which are ultimately reduced to a single pair. Mr. 
Haviland’s neoteinic queens were accompanied by neoteinic 
kings, and these, according to Mr. Haviland, behaved in a 
similar manner towards their consorts as perfect kings do to 
perfect queens. The collection made by Mr. Haviland con- 
sists of ten or twelve species, of most of which a great 
proportion of the forms was obtained ; the kings and queens 
