TERMITIDAE 369 



& 



delicious and delicate eating. One gentleman compared them to 

 sugared marrow, another to sugared cream and a paste of sweet 

 almonds." 



From the preceding brief sketch of some Termitidae we may 

 gather the chief points of importance in which they differ from 

 other Insects, viz. (1) the existence in the community of in- 

 dividuals — workers and soldiers — which do not resemble their 

 parents; (2) the limitation of the reproductive power to a single 

 pair, or to a small number of individuals in each community, and 

 the prolongation of the terminal period of life. There are other 

 social Insects besides Termitidae : indeed, the majority of social 

 Insects — ants, bees, and wasps — belong to the Order Hymen- 

 optera, and it is interesting to note that analogous phenomena 

 occur in them, but nevertheless with such great differences that 

 the social life of Termites must be considered as totally distinct 

 from that of the true ants and other social Hymenoptera. 



Development. — Social Insects are very different to others not 

 only in the fact of their living in society, but in respect of 

 peculiarities in the mode of reproduction, and in the variety of 

 habits displayed by members of a community. The greatest 

 confusion has arisen in reference to Termitidae in consequence 

 of the phenomena of their lives having been assumed to be 

 similar to those of Hymenoptera ; but the two cases are. very 

 different, Hymenoptera passing the early parts of their lives as 

 helpless maggots, and then undergoing a sudden metamorphosis to 

 a totally changed condition of structure, intelligence, and instinct. 



The development of what we may look on as the normal form 

 of Termitidae — that is, the winged Insects male and female — is 

 on the whole similar to that we have sketched in Orthoptera ; the 

 development in earwigs being perhaps the most similar. The 

 individuals of Termitidae are, however, in the majority of cases 

 if not in all, born without eyes ; the wing-rudiments develop 

 from the thoracic terga as shorter or longer lobes according to 

 the degree of maturity ; as in the earwigs the number of joints 

 in the antennae increases as development advances. All the young 

 are, when hatched, alike, the differences of caste appearing in the 

 course of the subsequent development ; the most important of 

 these differences are those that result in the production of two 

 special classes — only met with in social Insects — viz. worker 

 and soldier. Of these the workers are individuals whose devclop- 

 VOL. V 2 b 



