TERMITIDAE 



359 



be in plan and position similar to the ear of Locustidae, 

 though much less perfect. 



The wings of Termitidae are not like those of any other 

 Insects; their neuration is very simple, but nevertheless the 

 wings of the different 

 forms exhibit great differ- 

 ences in the extent to 

 which they are made up 

 of the various fields. This 

 is shown in Fig. 228, 

 where the homologous 

 nervures are numbered 

 according to the systems 

 of both Hagen and Eed- 

 tenbacher. The area, VII, 

 that forms the larger part 



Fig. 228. — Wings of Termites : A, Termes lucifugv^; 

 B, Hodotermes irmmeicornis ; C, Culotermes 

 nodulosns. (After Redtenbacher : B and C 

 diagrammatic.) Ill, V, VII, homologous areas 

 and uerviires according to Redtenbacher. 1, 

 Costal ; 2, subcostal ; 3, median j 4, submedian 

 uervures according to Hagen. 



of the wing in C, corre- 

 sponds to the small portion 

 at the base of the wing 

 in B. The most re- 

 markable feature of the 

 wing is, however, its division into two parts by a suture or line 

 of weakness near the base, as shown in Fig. 225. The wings 

 are used only for a single flight, and are then shed by detach- 

 ment at this suture ; the small basal portion of each of the four 

 wings is horny and remains attached to the Insect, serving as 

 a protection to the dorsal surface of the thorax. 



The nature of the suture that enables the Termites to cast 

 their wings with such ease after swarming is not yet understood. 

 There are no true transverse veinlets or nervules in Termites. 

 Eedtenbacher suggests ^ that the transverse division of the wing 

 at its base, as shown in Fig. 225, along which the separation of 

 the wing occurs at its falling off, may have arisen from a coales- 

 cence of the subcostal vein with the eighth concave vein of such 

 a wing as that of Blattidae. The same authority also informs us 

 that the only point of resemblance between the wings of Termi- 

 tidae and those of Psocidae is that both have an unusually small 

 number of concave veins. 



The information that exists as to the internal anatomy of 



1 Ann. Sofmus. Trim, i. 1886, p. 183. 



