TERMITES. 679* 



and termites are emphatically soft insects. The abdomen is 

 bulky and in the queens enormous. The members of the com- 

 munities apparently communicate one with another by means 

 of sound, and an auditory apparatus exists on the anterior tibia 

 as in the Locustidae. The wings, which are used but for one- 

 flight and are then cast off, possess few but varying nervures, 

 three chief longitudinal ones being present. Ten spiracles are- 

 described. Salivary glands and receptacles are present and 

 large ; a crop is found, but not always a proventriculus. Behind 

 the insertion of the few (4-8) malpighian tubules is a large swelling, 

 the " paunch," which is succeeded by the small intestine. Three 

 thoracic and six abdominal ganglia are described. The testes 

 and ovaries are simple and vary in size in different species and 

 specimens. 



It is not yet possible to give a generalized account of the 

 social communities of the termites, partly because our know- 

 ledge is still very incomplete, and partly because the organi- 

 zation of the societies differ very greatly in different species. 

 The classical example is the African T. bellicosus * which builds 

 huge clay nests " comparable to human dwellings ; some of 

 them being twenty feet in height." From these nests extend a, 

 ramification of covered passages, for, except during the swarming- 

 flight, the termites spend their life in the dark. Within the 

 nest is a countless crowd of termites, and the whole of this 

 community has been derived from a single royal couple which 

 alone are capable of reproducing. It is thought that if the royal 

 pair be destroyed the community perishes and if this be the case 

 there can be no provision such as exists in other colonial Insects 

 for repairing so grave a disaster. The queen attains enormous 

 proportions ; by the enlargement of the ovarian tubes her 

 abdomen swells to such an extent that she becomes from twenty 

 to thirty thousand times the normal size. She ceaselessly lays 

 eggs which are carried away and tended by the workers. Owing 

 to her bulk it is quite impossible for her to leave the royal cell 

 to which her mate is also confined. The growth which is here 

 described is probably a unique case, since Insects as a rule never 

 grow after reaching the adult instar. 



Besides the (i) king and queen we find in the colony enormous 



* Smeathman, Phil. Trans., Ixxi, 1781, p. 139; and Savage, Ann. Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. (2), v, 1850, p. 92. 



