100 Psyche [October 
The various forms in the colony are in general somewhat smaller 
than the corresponding forms in a co'ony of R. flavipes, and the 
winged adults are readily distinguished from those of R. flavipes 
by the deeper pigmentation of the wings and the proximity of the 
ocelli to the compound eyes. Among the forms that I have ob- 
tained is a physogastric “true queen.” The abdomen of this 
queen measures approximately three times the length of that of 
the winged adults at swarming time. “True queens” in this 
species have apparently been difficult to find in Europe, so much 
so that Grassi concluded they never occur in nature at the head 
of colonies, their place always being taken by “‘complementary”’ 
or “substitute” royal forms. In more recent years however a 
few have been recorded. 
The habits of R. lucifugus have been described in some detail by 
several authors, notably Lespes,'! Grassi and Sandias? and Feyt- 
aud.* I will add here only the following brief notes on the dates 
of molting and flying of the winged sexual forms. On warm hill- 
sides at Forest Hills and Stony Brook Reservation, nymphs of R. 
flavipes were found molting into winged adults in large numbers 
from May 5 to May 10, and were seen emerging from the colonies 
and flying on May 15, 17, and 19. The corresponding nymphs of 
R. lucifugus were molting in numbers to the adult state nearly a 
month later, May 30 to June 5, and were found flying as late as 
June 30. The flying of the latter was probably somewhat delayed 
by the prolonged cold weather in June. In 1917 R. flavipes 
swarmed in the early part of June in the colonies I was observing 
at Forest Hills. This corresponds with the backwardness of the 
season in that year. A typical swarm was witnessed on June 8. 
The development to the adult state is apparently accomplished 
in R. flavipes as early in the spring as the weather will permit. 
The nymphs reach the last nymphal instar in the late summer or 
fall of the previous year and are to be found in abundance as early 
as the termites appear in the spring, the first of April at Forest 
Hills this year. At this time they keep to the outlying parts of 
1 Recherches sur l’organisation et les moeurs du Termite lucifuge. (1856) Ann. Sci. Nat. 
Zodl., 4 série, t. 5. 
2 The constitution and development of the society of termites; observations of their habits; 
with appendices on the parasitic protozoa of Termitide and on the Embiide, (1893-4) translated 
by W. F. H. Blandford, Quat. Jour. Micros. Sci., vols. 39 and 40, new series. (1896-7). 
3 Contribution 4 !’étude du termite lucifuge. (1912) Archives d’anat. microsc., t. 13. 
