S6 MISC. PUBLICATION 657, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
Ficure 12.—Reticulitermes flavipes: A, Winged adult; B, worker; C, soldier. 
wood. The mature soldiers cannot eat wood and are fed by the 
workers. 
The sexual winged adults (macropterous, or large-winged adults), 
the only form with true eyes, engage in a short disper sal flight at cer- 
tain seasons of the year, the subterranean termites during the day, and 
the nonsubterranean termites at night. After the colonizing flight 
and the loss of wings, the dealated sextial adults become the monoga- 
mous reproductive “forms. Other reproductive forms of two main 
types—the form with wing pads (brachypterous adults) and the ap- 
terous (wingless) form, both of which have simple eyes—are also pres- 
ent in colonies, as is a series of intermediate forms, all of which are 
polygamous (Snyder, 387, 390). 
GENERAL HABITS 
The sexual winged adults fly in a colonizing flight at seasons of the 
year varying with the species and the locality. Of the dry-wood ter- 
mites, as a rule, only a few individuals fly from the parent colony at 
the same time, whereas from colonies of the subterranean termites 
the flights consist of very large numbers. 
After a short flight the wings are broken off at points of weakness, 
and a pair of dealated adults excavate a new abode, either in wood or 
in the earth, depending on the type of termite; only then does mating 
occur. ‘The male termite continues to live with and fertilize the female 
or females, and both excavate the first home and rear the first brood. 
After the colony is well established, the workers care for and feed 
the female reproductive forms which, though becoming enlarged 
(physogastric), are not confined in a special cell, as are those of some 
tropical termites. Even the queens never lose their power of locomo- 
tion. They move about with seasonal changes. The rate of eg@ lay- 
ing in our native termites, which have relatively ae queens, never 
approaches that of tropical species. The first brood of young of sub- 
terranean termites consists mostly of workers and a few soldiers, which 
