404 



Mincella n eous . 



ovaries of the thirty-one females were uot more than equal in weight 

 to those of a queen, and contained scarcely as many ova. 



Many questions still remain to be solved with regard to the com- 

 plemental males, the nature of the descendants produced by the 

 different forms of sexual individuals, the causes which induce the 

 development of one or other of these forms, &c. Numerous obser- 

 vations and researches will be necessary to enable us to understand 

 thoroughly the working of these complicated societies. Neverthe- 

 less one point seems to be gained, namely the knowledge of the 

 different forms which may be met with in a colony of Termites. 

 M. Fritz Miiller gives the following table of them : — 



1. Larvfe of the first age. 



2. Larvae of forms unfit for 

 reproduction. 



3. Larvae of forms fit for 

 reproduction. 



4. Larvae of 



soldiers. 



6. Soldiers. 



5. Larvae of 

 workers. 



7. Workers. 



9. Nymphs of 

 the second form. 



8. Nymphs of 

 the first form. 



1 



10. Winged 

 individuals. 



11. King and 12. Complenien- 

 queeu. tal males and 



females. 



The author has made numerous observations on the structure of 

 the nests of Termites, and gives a great number of figures which 

 are indispensable for the proper comprehension of these construc- 

 tions. We must content ourselves with mentioning the curious 

 fact that the excrements of the Termites seem to be the materials 

 most employed by these insects, or at least by those which burrow 

 into trees and construct nests in the form of excrescences. If a 

 fragment of the nest be removed, the workers come one after the 

 other to the breach and repair it by depositing their excrements, to 

 which certain individuals add small fragments of the broken wall. 

 Sometimes, also, those which have nothing in the rectum disgorge 

 the food which they have uot yet digested. This latter method, 

 probably, is not employed in time of peace ; the insects, no doubt, 

 only have recourse to it when it is necessary to repair quickly a 

 nest broken open by some enemy. 



Ternies Lespesii, F. Miiller, which builds upon the ground, does 

 not exclusively employ its excrements, although these constitute 

 the greater part of the material of the nest ; its constructions con- 

 sist partly of a clayey earth. The two substances usually form suc- 

 cessive layei's, which vary in thickness and arrangement in different 

 parts of the nest. — Jenaische Zeitschrift, vol. vii. (1873) pp. 333- 

 358 & 451-463 ; abstract in Bibl. Univ., Arch, des Sci. Phys. et Nat., 

 March 15, 1874, pp. 254-259. 



