406 THE INSECT WOELD. 



soldiers are the pupae. M. de Quatrefages admits that the soldiers 

 are the neuters, and that the workers are recruited both from the 

 larvaB and from the pupae. It may be admitted, with other natu- 

 ralists, that the soldiers and the workers are neuters : the first, 

 abortive males, the second, abortive females. Here is, indeed, what 

 M. Lespes has observed in the Termites of the Landes. Among 

 these insects, the most numerous are the workers : their size is 

 that of a large ant, and their duties are to excavate galleries, to 

 search for provisions, and to take care of the eggs, the larvae, and 

 the pupae. The workers have a rounded head and short mandibles, 

 and are blind. The soldiers, less numerous, have an enormous 

 head, nearly as big as the rest of their body, very strong crossed 

 mandibles, and are blind like the workers. Anatomy showed M. 

 Lespes that both are neuters that is, the soldiers males, and the 

 workers females, with aborted organs. 



The larvae of the females much resemble the workers. Those 

 which are to become males or females are distinguished from those 

 which are to become neuters by very slight rudiments of wings, 

 and their pupae show already imperfect wings, hidden in cases ; 

 furthermore, they have eyes hidden under the skin. The males and 

 females alone have eyes ; they also have wings, which they lose 

 immediately after the coupling. Those which proceed from the 

 pupae with long wing-cases become kings and queens after their 

 swarming, which takes place at the end of May. The pupae with 

 short wing-cases become perfect in the month of August, and pro- 

 duce larger males and females, which become the kings and queens. 

 All these couples are collected by the neuters, and the queens, 

 large and small, set to work immediately to lay. The largest are 

 much the more fruitful. The workers do not seem to take any 

 care of them at all. With the exception of this last peculiarity, 

 everything probably goes on in the same manner with the exotic 

 Termites ; but with the latter the queen is an object of worship. 



Fig. 381 represents the four types of the republic of the Termes 

 ludfugus. On the left is a worker, on the right a soldier, in the 

 centre a winged male ; all three very much magnified, the lines 

 drawn by their side showing the natural size. Below the male is 

 the pregnant queen ( D D D D), of the natural size. 



Many species of Termites were studied with care by the English 



