58 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



Fritz Muller has also proved, that in many 

 instances a Termite community may contain in 

 addition to the workers and fully developed 

 winged males and females, who are the true 

 future kings and queens, a certain number 

 of wingless males and females. These are 

 apparently kept in reserve by the community, 

 and, in the event of none of the young kings and 

 queens, after their courtship flight, returning 

 and being adopted, then these wingless males 

 and females who never leave the nest, are 

 allowed to mate and become parents. 



The winged males and females are produced 

 in great numbers at certain seasons of the year, 

 and on completing their growth, quit the nest 

 and swarm into the air. Here again there is 

 a marked difference between the Ants and 

 Termites, for although the male Termites may 

 commence the courtship of their queens during 

 the brief flight, the actual mating does not 

 appear to take place until the amorous couple 

 have taken up their abode in some hospitable 

 nest, and have been formally accepted as king 

 and queen by the community. Then both the 

 king and queen, who have lost their wings or 

 had them pulled off by the workers, are 

 established in .a special royal chamber in the 

 centre of the nest, and in this chamber they 

 pass the rest of their lives, being carefully 

 tended by the workers. The body of the queen 

 becomes enormously distended, until it looks 

 like a sausage-shaped cylinder, of a sickly whitish 

 colour, from two to five or six inches in length. 

 In this condition, the queen is quite helpless and 



