Chap. I. 
WHITE ANTS. 
67 
kinds which get into houses and destroy furniture, 
books, and clothing. All hives do not contain a queen 
and her partner. Some are new constructions, and, 
when taken to pieces, show only a large number of 
workers occupied in bringing eggs from an old over- 
stocked Termitarium, with a small detachment of 
soldiers evidently told off for their protection. 
A few weeks before the exodus of the winged males 
and females a completed Termitarium contains Termites 
of all castes and in all stages of development. On 
close examination I found the young of each of the 
four orders of individuals crowded together, and ap- 
parently feeding in the same cells. The full-grown 
workers showed the greatest attention to the young 
larvae, carrying them in their mouths along the galleries 
from o*tie cell to another, but they took no notice of the 
full-grown ones. It was not possible to distinguish the 
larvae of the four classes when extremely young, but at 
an advanced stage it was easy to see which were to 
become males and females, and which workers and 
soldiers. The workers have the same form throughout, 
the soldiers showed in their later stages of growth the 
large head and cephalic processes, but much less deve- 
loped than in the adult state. The males and females 
were distinguishable by the possession of rudimentary 
wings and eyes, which increased in size after three 
successive changes of skin. 
Thus I think I made out that the soldier and worker 
castes are, like the males and females, distinct from the 
egg ; they are not made so by a difference of food or 
treatment during their earlier stages, and they never 
F 2 
