Notice of a fossil Termes. Ill 



and of a yellowish white, provided with six feet, having the 

 head, the corselet, and the abdomen distinct. Their head is 

 large, furnished with mandibula and jaws, hut deprived of 

 eyes, or having them very small. We distinguish these two 

 sorts of individuals by the form of their head ; in those 

 which compose the greater number of the society, the head 

 is much larger ; this part is rounded, and the mandibula are 

 not advanced ; while in the others, which scarcely form the 

 twenty -fifth part of the group, the head is much longer, elon- 

 gated, and of a cylindrical figure, terminated by prominent 

 crossed mandibula. We find at the end of winter and in 

 the spring, individuals resembling the former, which have 

 four white appendices in the form of wings, two on the 

 second ring, two on the third ; if at the end of a month we 

 open the Termitiere, we find only a few of these individuals 

 which have lost their wings. We find also in cavities in wood 

 the eggs of these insects in the form of impalpable powder ; 

 we may conclude from these observations that the individuals 

 without wings, with a round head and short mandibula, are 

 larvae, that the individuals resembling these, but having ap- 

 pendices of wings are Nymphae ; that those which have wings 

 are perfect insects. It is to be presumed that the entire de- 

 velopment of these insects is only completed at the end of two 

 years, because when one part of them appear with wings, 

 we find others in the nidus in the form of larvae, which 

 could not undergo this last metamorphosis sooner than 

 the following year. 



The character which M. Latreille gives to the larvae of 

 Termites agrees perfectly with our fossil insect, and I am 

 inclined to look upon it as a Termes lucifugum, in the form 

 of a larva without the presence of the abdominal appendices 

 which I have mentioned above, and which are only seen in 

 insects of a perfect state. The number of joints in the 

 antennae prevents us from considering this insect as a female 

 which had lost the wings. 



