122 ASSOCIATION OF ORGANISMS THE WEB OF LIFE 



results will be briefly summarized. The societies of some of the 

 African forms are still more complicated, but here our know- 

 ledge is in many respects very incomplete, though it may prove 

 interesting to give a few details. Rather more than 100 species 

 of Termite have been so far described, and these are probably 

 only a tithe of those which actually exist. They abound in the 

 tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world. 



The Yellow-Necked Termite (Calotirmes flavicollis) of the 

 Mediterranean littoral is of peculiar interest, for its communi- 

 ties are small (under 1000 individuals), and the habits are com- 

 paratively simple. The home is a hollow within a dead or 

 decaying tree, and the architectural operations are limited to 

 increasing the size of the hollow as may be necessary, and 

 making partitions or the like with waste matter ejected from 

 the intestine, saliva being employed as a cement. Within this 

 simple home are found a king and queen, together with a 

 number of soldiers and nymphs. There are no workers. The 

 soldiers are distinguished, as in Termites generally, by the 

 possession of huge heads and formidable jaws. The habits as 

 regards food are somewhat remarkable, and promote sanitation 

 of the nest in an unusual degree. Wood is the staple diet, but 

 it is a substance very difficult of digestion, and the pellets which 

 are voided from the intestine are eaten again and again, until 

 their nutritive properties are exhausted, when they are either 

 employed as building materials, heaped up in remote parts of 

 the nest, or dropped outside. Partly digested food may also 

 be ejected from the crop, suggesting the arrangement found in 

 other social insects as regards sweet substances. The salivary 

 secretion is also highly nutritious, and not a mere digestive 

 juice. All the cast skins are used as food, and burial rites are 

 simple, the bodies of deceased friends augmenting the bill of 

 fare. The young nymphs are fed at first on saliva, from 

 which they are promoted to material ejected from the crop and 

 intestinal pellets, wood pure and simple being eaten more or 

 less at a still later stage. A grim sort of fate attends the 

 soldiers, for their huge jaws would appear to cut them off from 

 the most abundant items in the dietary, and they are driven to 

 cannibalism. Not only do they devour the dead, but shorten 

 the sufferings of the sick and dying by eating them alive. It 

 is supposed that they are in a state of permanent hunger, and 



