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



on swarming adults (lucifugus) in Kansas (McCulloch). Probably 

 there are many other insectivorous animals that reduce the enormous 

 number of winged termites. 



While clumsy in flight, termites are able to run rapidly, but ap- 

 parently never wander great distances. Further, even some of those 

 pairs that escape being devoured fail to become established in new 

 colonies because of unfavorable moisture conditions in the incipient 

 colony. 



The male is attracted to the female, and after the flight, either 

 before or after the now useless and retarding wings have been dis- 

 carded by being pried off at a suture near the base, tirelessly and 

 closely follows her about. In this manner the insects separate into 

 pairs and become established in shallow cells in the earth, usually 

 under decaying pieces of wood, in holes in the wood, or under moist 

 bark, thus independently establishing new colonies. 



The female in seeking the site of the new colony is sometimes 

 followed by more than one male, and in shallow cells excavated by 

 these reproductive forms there may be one female associated with 

 two males or vice versa. 



MATING. 



During the first stages of colonization both the male and female are 

 active, forage for themselves, and are apparently equally important 

 in the establishment of the new colony and the independent rearing 

 of the first brood of young. 



The habitation of the male and female or incipient colony is 

 called the " royal cell," since it is occupied by a single parent pair, 

 the especially developed " king and queen," which have originated 

 from the winged, sexed adults after the swarm. The first brood is 

 reared within the confines of this small chamber. In this type of re- 

 productive form, after the pair have become established together, 

 there is further sexual development and the abdomens of both sexes 

 increase slightly in size. In case of the queen there is a later consid- 

 erable post-adult growth. 



Unlike the other social insects, the sexual relations of the male and 

 female termite are continued. Copulation probably does not take 

 place until about one week after the swarm and the establishment of 

 the pair in the royal cell, but is repeated at irregular intervals over 

 a period of many years. 



THE RATE OF EGG LAYING. 



Egg laying in newly established colonies in case of the species 

 fiavipes, in the southeastern United States, begins about the middle 

 of June or July ; and in late June to July, or August — unhatched eggs 

 being present till the middle of August — in incipient colonies of 



