372 NEUROPTERA 



tremely similar to one another, and there are no intermediates 

 between them and the other forms, except in the stages of 

 differentiation. But we must recollect that but little is yet 

 known of the full history of any Termite community, and it is 

 possible that soldiers which in the stage of differentiation promise 

 to be unsatisfactory may be killed and eaten, — indeed there is some 

 evidence to this effect. There is too in certain cases some difference 

 — larger or smaller size being the most important — between the 

 soldiers of one species, which may possibly be due to the different 

 stage of development at which their differentiation commenced. 



It would at present appear that, notwithstanding the remark- 

 able difference in structure of the soldiers and workers of the 

 white ants, there is not a corresponding difference of instinct. 

 It is true that soldiers do more of certain things than workers 

 do, and less of others, but this appears to be due solely to their 

 possession of such very different structures ; and we are repeatedly 

 informed by Grassi that all the individuals in a community take 

 part, so far as they are able, in any work that is going on, and 

 we find also in the works of other writers accounts of soldiers 

 performing acts that one would not have expected from them. 

 The soldiers are not such effective combatants as the workers are. 

 Dudley and Beaumont indeed describe the soldiers as merely look- 

 ing on while the workers fight.^ So that we are entitled to con- 

 elude that the actions of the soldiers, in so far as they differ from 

 those of the rest of the community, do so because of the different 

 organisation and structures of these individuals. We shall, when 

 speaking of food, point out that the condition of the soldier in 

 relation to food and hunger is probably different from that of 

 the other forms. 



Various Forms of a Community. — The soldiers and workers 

 are not the only anomalous forms found in Termitid communi- 

 ties ; indeed on examining a large nest a variety of forms may 

 be found that is almost bewildering. Tables have been drawn 

 up by Grassi and others showing that as many as fifteen kinds 

 may be found, and most of them may under certain circumstances 

 coexist. Such tables do not represent the results of actual 

 examination in any one ease, and they by no means ade- 

 quately represent the number that, according to the most recent 

 observations of Grassi, may be present ; but we give one taken 



1 Tr. N. York Ac. viii. 1889, pp. 85-114 ; and ix. 1890, pp. 157-180. 



