THE LONGEVITY OF MEMBERS OF THE DIFFER- 

 ENT CASTES OF TERMOPSIS ANGUSTICOLLIS. 



HAROLD HEATH. 



Nearly five years have elapsed since I published an account * 

 of the breeding habits of three species of California termites, and 

 in this interval it has been possible to add a few facts relating 

 chiefly to the age of the members of the various castes of Ter- 

 mopsis angusticollis . As was mentioned in the foregoing account, 

 winged forms do not appear in colonies founded by a primary 

 royal pair until the end of the second year though nymphs, that 

 is larvae with well developed wing buds, may be recognized be- 

 before the close of the first year. Also in older colonies imma- 

 ture royal individuals, one or two molts removed from the adult 

 condition, may be found in large numbers in nests from which the 

 winged forms are ready to depart. As there is but one flight a 

 year with this species, it follows that some of the members of the 

 primary royalty are over one year of age before they leave the 

 nest. Furthermore, I have in several instances removed from a 

 flourishing colony a small band of soldiers and well developed 

 workers, together with a number of young individuals which 

 have not undergone more than two molts. The development of 

 these last named insects may be followed without any particular 

 difficulty and where they become true royal forms it is usually 

 after they have been more than one year in the nest. 



To determine the length of life of the true royal pair after their 

 mating I partially buried a number of pine logs in a favorable 

 situation and covered them with a cage constructed of fine wire 

 netting. In it were placed, previous to the swarming season, a 

 number of colonies housed in glass jars or naturally founded in 

 logs which had been carried in from the fields. The escape of 

 the winged insects from these nests was normal, and in a short 

 time hundreds of royal pairs were engaged in constructing bur- 

 rows, which, like the resulting colonies, were developed in the cus- 

 tomary fashion as I determined from time to time. During the 



i "The Habits of California Termites," Biol. Bull., IV., 47-64. 



161 



