250 ENTOMOLOGY FOR MEDICAL OFFICERS 



Order ISOPTERA : Termites. 

 (Gr. i'cro? = equal, or alike, and 7rT6/)o'i/ = wing.) 



This order includes the single family of TermitidcB, or so- 

 called "white ants," which by some authors are with good 

 reason ranked with the Orthoptera. Though, on account of 

 their social organisation, they are persistently called " ants," 

 they have — beyond their common ties as insects — no connec- 

 tion with the true ants : in this Age of Education they should 

 be referred to as Termites. 



The termites are soft-bodied social insects which may, or 

 may not, have caducous wings, both pairs of wings, when 

 present, being of equal size, membranous, and much longer 

 than the body. All 3 segments of the thorax are distinct, 

 and the abdomen consists of 10 segments, and ends in a pair 

 of small cerci. Metamorphosis is " incomplete." 



Termites live in organised polities, or " colonies," which 

 are lodged either in mound-like nests coated with hardened 

 clay, or in clay-lined passages (" galleries ") tunnelled in or 

 on dead trees, stumps, and the woodwork of houses, in warm 

 countries. They do not, in the ordinary way of life, leave 

 home, but work under cover and in darkness ; although there 

 is one South African species, the workers of which have eyes, 

 and come out into the daylight. In some parts of the world 

 the colonies are enormously prolific, and their mounds are so 

 large and so extensive as to resemble native villages. 



The multitude of the full-grown individuals of a typical 

 termite-polity are blind, wingless forms (male and female) in 

 a state of arrested sexual development, and are known as 

 workers. Besides these ordinary workers the population 

 includes (i) a considerable number of workers with enormous 

 heads, known as soldiers, and (2) a pair — or, perhaps, some- 

 times more than one pair — of sexually developed individuals 

 male and female, known as king and queen, which are the 

 parents of the colony. The queen, at least, is lodged in a 

 special chamber, where she is attended by workers and becomes 

 a mere stationary engine for producing eggs : she may live 

 for years, and her abdomen becomes enormously distended 

 until it has something the appearance of a fair-sized potato. 



