THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATUEAL HISTORY. 



[SIXTH SERIES.] 



No. 106. OCTOBER 1896. 



XLIII. — The Development of a Termite — Eutermes (Rip- 

 peitii ?) : a Preliminary Abstract. By H. McE. Knower *. 



During my tenure of the Adam T. Brace Fellowship this past 

 winter I have studied the development of a species of termite 

 closely related to Eutermes Rippertii^ Rambur. The material 

 was collected in Jamaica, and the work was undertaken as 

 part of a more extended investigation of the biology of the 

 Termites and because of the primitive character of the group, 

 the embryology of which has not been hitherto studied. 



In its general features the embryology is quite similar to 

 that described by Brandt for the Libellulid Galopteryx (1) ; 

 but, on the whole, I should say it resembles rather more the 

 development of certain of the Orthoptera. Like StenobotJiruSj 

 (Ecanfhus, &c., the first rudiment of the embryo is a small 

 disk near one pole of the egg. In the termite this disk is on 

 the ventral surface, just beneath the micro pyles, near the 

 posterior pole of the egg. I have studied the segmentation 

 and early stages of the formation of the disk to find out how 

 this rudiment arises. As a result, it is clear to me that the 

 germ-disk is not formed immediately during the segmentation, 

 by cells wandering from the interior of the egg directly to 

 their places in the embryonic area. On the contrary, the cells 



* From the 'Johns Hopkins University CircuL^rs ' for June 1896, 

 pp. 86, 87. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol xviii. 20 



