344 ZOOLOGY 



neuters, will succeed in founding a new nest. In this a special 

 chamber is set apart for the queen, whose body swells enor- 

 mously. It may attain a length of more than 3 inches, and is 

 distended by an enormous ovary. The queen lays eggs at the 

 rate of 80,000 to 90,000 a day, and these are carried away 

 and cared for by the workers. 



In Termes lucifugus, found in South Africa, the larvae 

 which mature in the spring become kings and queens, those 

 which mature in the summer become complementary kings 

 and queens, and replace the functional ones if occasion arises. 

 The king dies in the autumn, but, although the queen ceases 

 to lay eggs during the winter, she survives, and resumes the 

 egg-laying in the spring. 



The nests of Calotermes are the most incomplete ; there is 

 no special chamber for the queen, and their home consists of 

 passages tunnelled in trees. 



Family 2. Thkipsidae. — A family of very small, usually 

 black insects with fringed wings. Their body is long and 



Fig. 195. — Corn thrips [Thrips cere- 

 alium), female. Magnified. 



narrow, their antennae long and slender, and their mouth parts 

 suctorial. Thrips cerealium does a good deal of harm to wheat 

 crops, others injure flowers, etc. They are sometimes regarded 

 as a separate order of Insects, and called the Thysanoptera ; 

 other authorities place them with the Hemiptera. 



Family 3. Ephemeridae. — The Ephemeridae or May-flies 

 spend but a short part of their life in the imago condition, at 

 most only a few hours. They are delicate insects with a long 

 body and a ten-jointed cylindrical abdomen which ends in two 

 or three very long anal filaments. The imago takes no food, 

 its mouth parts are rudimentary, and the oral cavity is 

 stated not to open into the alimentary canal. The ducts of 

 the reproductive organs do not unite in either sex, but open 

 independently, one on each side of the ninth abdominal seg- 

 ment in the male, and between the seventh and eighth in the 

 female. 



