TERMITES 



whole winged brood issues from the nest in a great swarm. 

 Since insects are normally winged creatures, it is evident 

 that these flying termites represent the perfect forms of 

 the termite colony — they are, in fact, the sexually mature 

 males and females. 



The several forms of individuals in the termite com- 

 munity are known as castes. 



An intensive search through the galleries of a termite 

 nest might reveal, besides workers, soldiers, and the 

 members of the winged brood in various stages of devel- 

 opment, a few individuals of still different kinds. These 

 have heads like the winged forms, but rather larger bodies; 

 some have short wing rudiments (Fig. 80), others have 

 none; and finally there are two individuals, a male and 

 a female, bearing wing stubs from which, evidently, 

 fully-formed wings have been broken off. The male of 

 this last pair is just an ordinary-looking, though dark- 

 bodied termite 

 (Fig. 82 A); but 

 the female is dis- 

 tinguished from 

 all the other mem- 

 bers of the colony 

 by the great size 

 of her abdomen 

 (B). 



Through the in- 

 vestigations of 

 entomologists it is 

 known that the 

 short-winged . and 

 wingless individu- 

 als of this group comprise both males and females that 

 are potentially capable of reproduction, but that in 

 general all the eggs of the colony are actually produced 

 by the large-bodied female, whose consort is the male 

 that has lost his wings. In other words, this fertile 



Fig. 79. Adult winged caste of Reticulitermcs tibialis, 



wings shown on one side of the body only. (From 



Banks and Snyder) 



133 



