Volume VI 
MARCH, 190!) 
No. 4 
SOME STATISTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON TERMITES, 
MAINLY BASED ON THE WORK OF THE LATE 
MR G. D. HAVILAND. 
By ERNEST WARREN, D.Sc. Lond. 
(1) In the year 1906 Mr A. E. Haviland of Estcourt, Natal, kindly placed 
at my disposal the collections and notes of the late Mr G. D. Haviland. 
The latter had made a special study of the termites of Natal and of the 
Malay Archipelago, and he published a valuable paper on these insects in the 
Linnean Society's Journal, Vol. xxvi. p. 358 et seq., 1897. The notes include some 
interesting observations on the life-histories of the Natal species of termites, 
and also a large series of measurements made on one particular species, Termes 
natalensis Haviland. The general biological observations, which appear to be 
unrecorded, are being incorporated in a short paper which is about to be 
published in the Annals of the Natal Government Museum, while in the present 
paper the measurements will be briefly dealt with. For the elucidation of some 
doubtful points, Mr Haviland's observations have been supplemented by some 
fresh measurements on Termes natalensis and also on other species. 
As is well known, termites are social insects with an economy bearing some 
resemblance to that of ants and social bees and wasps. The nature of the in- 
habitants of a termite-nest varies according to the species and to the season 
of the year at which examination is made. If a nest of T. natalensis be examined 
in the spring (September) the following diffei-ent castes may be found: (1) a 
single queen and a single Jcing, these are the only sexually mature forms that 
occur; (2) soldiers of two sizes, asexual; (3) vjorkers of two sizes, asexual; 
(4) winged males and females, not sexually mature ; (.5) young or immature 
members of castes (2), (3) and (4). 
In some species there are several queens and kings in the nest, and the 
soldiers and workers may be of one size only, or the soldiers may be absent 
altogether. 
In ants and bees the workers (and soldiers, when they occur) are sterile females ; 
while in the termites it appears that both the soldiers and workers are abortive 
individuals of either sex. There is also evidence for believing that the ultimate 
Biometrika vi 42 
