122 ASSOCIATION OF ORGANISMS—THE WEB OF LIFE 
results will be briefly summarized. The societies of some of the 
African forms are still more complicated, but here our know- 
ledge is in many respects very incomplete, though it may prove 
interesting to give a few details. Rather more than 100 species 
of Termite have been so far described, and these are probably 
only a tithe of those which actually exist. They abound in the 
tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world. 
The Yellow-Necked Termite (Calotermes flavicollis) of the 
Mediterranean littoral is of peculiar interest, for its communi- 
ties are small (under 1000 individuals), and the habits are com- 
paratively simple. The home is a hollow within a dead or 
decaying tree, and the architectural operations are limited to 
increasing the size of the hollow as may be necessary, and 
making partitions or the like with waste matter ejected from 
the intestine, saliva being employed as a cement. Within this 
simple home are found a king and queen, together with a 
number of soldiers and nymphs. There are no workers. The 
soldiers are distinguished, as in Termites generally, by the 
possession of huge heads and formidable jaws. The habits as 
regards food are somewhat remarkable, and promote sanitation 
of the nest in an unusual degree. Wood is the staple diet, but 
it is a substance very difficult of digestion, and the pellets which 
are voided from the intestine are eaten again and again, until 
their nutritive properties are exhausted, when they are either 
employed as building materials, heaped up in remote parts of 
the nest, or dropped outside. Partly digested food may also 
be ejected from the crop, suggesting the arrangement found in 
other social insects as regards sweet substances. The salivary 
secretion is also highly nutritious, and not a mere digestive 
juice. All the cast skins are used as food, and burial rites are 
simple, the bodies of deceased friends augmenting the bill of 
fare. The young nymphs are fed at first on saliva, from 
which they are promoted to material ejected from the crop and 
intestinal pellets, wood pure and simple being eaten more or 
less at a still later stage. A grim sort of fate attends the 
soldiers, for their huge jaws would appear to cut them off from 
the most abundant items in the dietary, and they are driven to 
cannibalism. Not only do they devour the dead, but shorten 
the sufferings of the sick and dying by eating them alive. It 
is supposed that they are in a state of permanent hunger, and 
