into two Classes. cxci 



well-being and preservation of the species, through the labours of the 

 great mass of individuals, and consequently requires labourers devoted 

 solely to the task: the two kinds of apterous individuals which perform 

 the labours of an ants' nest, are clearly neither more nor less than, the 

 smaller, imperfect males, the larger, imperfect females. Among social 

 isomorphous insects, in which the general figure and character is pre- 

 served from the egg to the imago, and is little more than a gradually 

 progressive development in size, accompanied by a slight modification 

 in form after every ecdysis, we have strong reasons for believing that 

 these four kinds of individuals differ even from the egg, thus giving us 

 four kinds of larvae, four kinds of pupae, and four of imagines. Such 

 being the rationale of the composition of a colony of white ants, such 

 being a summary of what, by analogy, we are to look for in inspecting 

 its individuals, there is no just cause for surprise, if when, by analogy, 

 we may calculate on finding twelve kinds of individuals, we do actu- 

 ally discover six or eight; neither is it at all astonishing, that with 

 these six or eight kinds of individuals we should be unable to pro- 

 nounce immediately and with certainty on the states of each ; that is, 

 to say that such an individual is the larva of a perfect female, and such 

 another the pupa of an imperfect male. Latreille tells us that he found 

 individuals having what he supposed the rudiments of wings attached 

 to the wing-bearing segments, and that he therefore thought himself 

 at liberty to conclude that these were pupae, and subsequent authors 

 have regarded this matter as settled ; but we cannot consider this a 

 sufficient conclusion : in all probability the great majority, as in the 

 Hymenopterous ants, never attain wings at all, and the pupae of such 

 apterous imagines consequently possess no rudiments of wings; hence 

 it follows that Latreille had only discovered one of the forms of pupa, 

 without settling which. The individuals called by the illustrious au- 

 thor "neuters," and which Smeathman graphically described as "sol- 

 diers," and Fabricius as w pupae," and which appear to be as scarcely 

 one in a hundred to the smaller individuals which perform the labours of 

 the community, are probably imagines, both male and female, arrested 

 like the working apterous Hymenopterous ants, while still imperfectly 

 developed. We are in want of more entomological observations, and 

 also more philosophical deductions, before these matters can be 

 finally settled. 



The Termitina appear to be capable of division into two minor 

 groups, by the length of their wings and the joints of their tarsi, ac- 

 cording to the following formula. 



