358 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



probable that the abundance of this material may 

 hitherto have been the means of saving the city 

 itself from the inroads of these destructive insects, 

 by affording them on the spot all the conditions 

 favourable to the construction of their nests and the 

 maintenance of their community. 



The results of M. LespeV observations seem to 

 have led him to the conclusion that a Termite 

 colony invariably consists of the following distinct 



1. A fruitful pair, the parent king and queen, or 

 a secondary and lesser king and queen (petit roi et 

 petite reine).* 



2. Neuters of two forms : workers and soldiers. 



3. Larvas of two forms : sexual individuals and 

 neuters. 



4. Nymphas of two forms. 



5. Sexual individuals, winged insects of two forms, 

 which are destined to leave the nest : the May brood 

 becoming the secondary or lesser kings and queens ; 

 while the August brood are the future parent kings 

 and queens, destined to found new communities. 



These classes may be grouped under two distinct 

 heads, as apterous neuters, which embrace the workers 

 and soldiers, and winged sexual individuals, which 

 comprise the secondary or lesser kings and queens, 

 and the parent kings and queens. 



M. Lespes found workers and soldiers at all times 



* M. Lespes was unable to satisfy himself as to the precise voca- 

 tion of these lesser kings and queens, of which he sometimes found 

 several couples in the same community, even where the nest con- 

 tained a parent king and queen of larger size. 



