FLAT-WINGED GROUP 3139 



contains, is swollen to an enormous size. "She lies there," writes Drummond, in 

 reference to one of the African species, "a large, loathsome, cylindrical package, 

 two or three inches long, in shape like a sausage, and as white as a bolster." Her 

 eggs are discharged at a rapid rate, amounting in a single day to several thousands, 

 and the process is continued with the same activity for months in succession. Both 

 workers and soldiers are wingless members of the community, and, in the majority 

 of species, have no eyes. The workers have small and rounded heads, with short 

 mandibles, and well-developed maxillae and palpi; whereas the soldiers are easily 

 recognized by their big, square, or oblong heads, and long mandibles. The work- 

 ers are the most numerous class, and have many duties to perform in the way of 

 building tunneling, and providing food for the young larvae and for the king and 

 queen. The soldiers look after the protection of the workers, and act generally in 

 defense of the community. In one genus there are no true mandibulate soldiers; 

 but there is instead a class of individuals, known as " nasuti," from the fact that 

 their pear-shaped heads are prolonged in front in the form of a beak. The exact 

 part which the nasuti play is not yet clearly known; but, like the soldiers of other 

 species, these individuals appear at the first sign of danger, and shake their head 

 and palpi in a most menacing way. The eggs of the queen termite are, as men- 

 tioned, carried away by bodies of workers, and placed in special chambers or 

 nurseries. When the young larvae are hatched, they are at first indistinguishable 

 from one another, and are little blind creatures, with soft and pale integument; and 

 it is only after the first or second molt, that they begin to show those differences 

 which subsequently distinguish the larvae of the various classes. They are fed 

 with a special kind of food, consisting of comminuted dead wood, mixed with saliva, 

 which certain of the workers prepare for them. By varying the quantity and 

 quality of the food supplied, the termites appear able to arrest or deviate the devel- 

 opment of larvae that would, in the ordinary course, become perfect insects or, in 

 other words, they can produce workers and soldiers from larvas which, if fed upon a 

 different diet, might develop into winged insects fitted to become kings and queens. 

 And it has been shown that neither the soldiers nor the workers of the termites be- 

 long to one particular sex only, as is the case with the neuters of bees and ants, but 

 that individuals of both sexes, in an imperfect sexual condition are comprised in 

 each class. The winged insects into which many of the larvae develop are most 

 abundant at certain periods of the year, especially after rains; they do not remain 

 long in the nest, but, after a few days at the most, make their way out, or are led 

 out by the workers, and shortly afterward take flight. They may often be seen 

 flying in swarms, and at night sometimes enter houses, being attracted by the light. 

 Many are devoured by birds, which seize them as they leave the nest. When they 

 have finished their flight, and alight on the ground, they shed their wings, which 

 easily snap off at the line of suture near the base. If a couple, chancing to be 

 near a termite burrow, are found by some workers, they are brought in, a royal cell 

 is prepared for them, and, as king and queen, they become the parents of a new 

 colony. Some larvae develop into individuals, which, although fitted to perform the 

 functions of perfect insects, never possess complete wings, but are provided at most 

 with wing pads, or rudiments of wings. These individuals, which somewhat 



