BIOLOGY OF THE TERMITES OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 81 
(3) The ninth sternite nearly resembles the eighth/ ,a The genital 
" appendices" in the male are attached to "what is apparently the 
eighth, but is really the ninth sternite, the first being fused with the 
metasternum." 6 There are two segmented appendages, or cerci, at- 
tached to the abdomen. After swarming, the sexed adults become 
royal individuals. 
Larvae, or young, are undifferentiated individuals which, after 
further development, attaining chitinization and pigmentation, change 
to differentiated individuals. The larvae, like all the other stages of 
termites, are active. When young or freshly molted the individuals 
are more transparent and white and the segmentation of the body at 
this stage is more sharply defined. "The younger the individual, or 
the more recent its ecdysis, the thinner is the chitin." c The term 
larva is applied (1) to any individual which has not yet attained full 
size, mature chitinization, and pigmentation; (2) in the case of the 
sexed individuals, to those with the wing-rudiments not easily dis- 
tinguishable to the naked eye; and (3) in case of the soldier, to the 
large-headed, undifferentiated, workerlike forms. 
The eggs are white, slightly reniform, and those laid by true queens 
(queens that have swarmed) are approximately 1 millimeter in length 
in jiavipes. The eggs are usually found in clusters or scattered 
singly in the galleries. 
THE SENSE ORGANS. 
Termites are essentially subterranean in habit and in consequence 
all castes of Leucotermes are blind except the colonizing individuals. 
The soldiers have compound eyes, but without pigmentation; in 
some neoteinic royal individuals the pigmentation of the compound 
eye is not visible to the naked eye (PI. VIII, fig. 2, a), but in most 
cases there is a slight pigmentation of variable intensity. All castes 
except the colonizing individuals shun the light. 
Although blind, termites are known to possess other sense organs.^ 
The antennas are important tactile sense organs, and often individuals 
may be seen feeling their way by means of these appendages. The 
antennae of the colonizing individuals are pitted, and from these 
pits, which appear as white depressions on the pigmented antennal 
segments, prominent hairs arise. A. C. Stokes, in an article entitled 
"The sense organs on the legs of Termes Jiavipes Koll.," e describes 
a Grassi, B., and Sandias, A. Op. cit., p. 306. 
&Ibid., p. 271. 
c Ibid., p. 256. 
d Miiller, Fritz. Beitrage zur kenntniss der Termiten. Jenaische Ztschr, Bd. 9 
(n. F. Bd. 2), p. 241-264, pi. 10-13, Mai 8, 1875. See p. 254, pi. 12, figs. 32, 34. 
e Stokes, Alfred C. The sense-organs on the legs of our white ants, Termes Jiavipes 
Koll. Science, v. 22, no. 563, p. 273-276, illus., November 17, 1893. 
