INSECTS 



proves suitable, the female begins digging into the wood 

 or into the ground beneath it, using her jaws as exca- 

 vating tools, perhaps helped a little by the male, and 

 soon a shaft is sunk at the end of which a cavity is hol- 

 lowed out of sufficient size to accommodate the pair and 

 to serve the purposes of a nest where true matrimony 

 may begin. 



Naturally it would be a very difficult matter to follow 

 the whole course of events in the building of a termite 

 community from one of these newly married pairs, tor 

 the termites live in absolute seclusion and any disturbance 

 of their nests breaks up the routine of their lives and 

 frustrates the efforts of the investigator. Many phases, 

 however, of the life and habits of our common eastern 

 United States termites, particularly of species belonging 

 to the genus Reticulitermes, have been discovered and 

 recorded in numerous papers by Dr. T. E. Snyder of the 

 U. S. Bureau of Entomology, and, thanks to Doctor 

 Snyder's work, we are able to give the following account 

 of the life of these termites and the history of the de- 

 velopment of a fairly complex community from the 

 progeny of a single pair of insects. 



The young married couple live amicably together in 

 conjugal relations within their narrow cell. The male, 

 perhaps, was forced to eject a would-be rival or two, but 

 eventually the mouth of the tunnel is permanently sealed, 

 and from now on the lives of this pair will be completely 

 shut in from the outside world. In due time, a month 

 or six weeks after the mating, the female lays her first 

 eggs, six or a dozen of them, deposited in a mass on the 

 floor of the chamber. About ten days thereafter the 

 eggs hatch, and the new home becomes enlivened with a 

 brood of little termites. 



The young termites, though active and able to run 

 about, are not capable of feeding themselves, and the 

 parents are now con fronted, with the task of keeping a 

 dozen growing appetites appeased. The feeding formula 



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