6 



BULLETIN" 333, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



life history. Young are kept in a retarded, undifferentiated state 

 and can be rapidly turned into supplementary or substitute repro- 

 ductive forms of both 



sexes. 



THE SEVERAL TYPES OF RE- 

 PRODUCTIVE FORMS. 



The nymphs of the 

 first form, with long 

 wing pads, develop to the 

 winged sexed adults. , 

 which, after the swarm, 

 lose the wings and be- 

 come the kings and 

 queens of the normal re- 

 productive form. These 

 normal kings and queens 

 are blackish or brown in 

 color, have eyes, and re- 

 tain the stumps of their 

 discarded wings ( fig, 

 4, a). 



From the nymphs of 

 the second form, with 

 short wing pads, are de- 

 veloped, probably by the 

 workers, individuals of 

 the substitute nymphal 

 reproductive form of 

 both sexes (PL II, figs. 

 3 and 4; text fig. 4, b). 

 These nymphs of the 

 second form are merely 

 nymphs of the first form 

 whose usual development 

 to the pigmented, winged, 

 sexed adults is retarded 

 at a certain stage and 

 never completed ; the in- 

 sects, instead, acquiring 

 a pale yellowish or gray- 

 ish color and becoming 

 sexually mature normally after the sexed adults have swarmed. Indi- 

 viduals of this neoteinic reproductive form are apparently blind, not 

 being destined to leave the parent colony, unless by underground 

 tunnels. 



Fig. 3. — Leucotermes flaripes: Larval, worker-like re- 

 productive form (" ergatoid queen," 9 mm. in length, 

 alcoholic specimen). (Original.) 



