TERMITES 



of the termite nursery calls for predigested wood pulp; 

 but fortunately this does not have to be supplied from 

 outside — the walls of the house furnish an abundance of 

 raw material and the digesting is done in the stomachs 

 of the parents. The pulp needs then only to be regurgi- 

 tated and handed to the infants. This feature in the 

 termite economy has a double convenience, for not only 

 are the young inexpensively fed, but the gathering of 

 the food automatically enlarges the home to accommodate 

 the increasing need for space of the growing family. 



That insects should gnaw tunnels through dead wood 

 is not surprising; but that they should be able to subsist 

 on sawdust is a truly remarkable thing and a dietetic 

 feat that few other animals could perform. Dry wood 

 consists mostly of a substance called cellulose, which, 

 while it is related to the starches and sugars, is a carbo- 

 hydrate that is entirely indigestible to ordinary animals, 

 though eaten in abundance as a part of all vegetable 

 food. The termites, however, are unusually gifted, not 

 with a special digestive enzyme, but with minute, one- 

 celled, cellulose-digesting protozoan parasites that live 

 in their alimentary canals. It is through the agency of 

 their intestinal inhabitants, then, that the termites are 

 able to live on a diet of dead wood. The young termites 

 receive some of the organisms with the food given them 

 by their parents and are soon able to be wood eaters 

 themselves. Not all termites, however, are known to 

 possess these intestinal protozoa, and, as we shall see, 

 many of them feed on other things than wood. 



The termite brood thrives upon its wood-pulp diet, 

 and by December following the spring in which the young 

 were hatched, the members of the new generation begin 

 to attain maturity after having progressed through a 

 series of moltings, as does any other growing insect. But 

 observe, the individuals of this generation, instead of 

 developing into replicas of their parents, have taken on 

 the form of workers and soldiers ! However, one should 



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