BIOLOGY OF THE TEEMITES OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 53 
queen, and the abdomen of the queen was not as yet markedly- 
distended. 
While the recently hatched young are active, they are dependent 
on the care of the parents or upon the workers for food. 
Wheeler a states, "In incipient ant colonies, the queen mother 
takes no food, often for as long a period as eight or nine months, and 
during all this time is compelled to feed her first brood of larvae 
exclusively on the excretions of her salivary glands. This diet, 
which is purely qualitative, though very limited in quantity, pro- 
duces only workers and these of an extremely small size (micrer- 
gates)." In incipient termite colonies (Leucotermes and Termop- 
sis b ) the young royal couple share the royal cell, excavated in 
decaying wood, at which time the abdomens of both the sexed adults 
increase slightly in size, and they take food — that is, wood. The first 
larvae develop to workers and a few soldiers, both forms being smaller 
than normal individuals or those in well-established colonies. No 
nymphs of sexed adults are produced during the first year. The 
rate of egg laying of a fully developed true queen is much more rapid. 
On August 5, 1913, at 5 p. m., a true queen, about 14 millimeters 
long, which had been taken in the root of a dead chestnut tree above 
ground, was isolated with the king in a cell in wood. By 9 a. m. on 
August 6, more than 12 eggs had been laid. When captured in the 
tree there were several hundred eggs as well as numerous recently 
hatched larvae near by. 
The antennae of some true royal pairs that have swarmed are 
apparently entire at a period of seven months after swarming; how- 
ever, the segments were not actually counted. In other pairs the 
antennae of both sexes are mutilated. 
THE ROYAL PAIR AND OTHER REPRODUCTIVE FORMS. 
OCCURRENCE IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Feytaud c gives a historical account of the frequency of occur- 
rence of reproductive forms of L. lucifugus in Europe and figures the 
reproductive forms. Between April and September in the eastern 
United States the several types of reproductive forms of our common 
species of termites are to be found in colonies in decaying wood 
above ground; that is, the pigmented, true royal pair with wing 
stubs, developed from the sexually mature adults; the supple- 
mentary neoteinic forms, with pale straw-colored pigmentation and 
short wing pads, developed from nymphs of the second form; and 
the ergatoids and neoteinic larval forms, with straw-colored pigmen- 
tation and no wing pads or rudiments, developed from mouldable 
larvae. It is believed that since these forms are mobile and that in 
« Op. cit., p. 68. & Heath, H. Op. cit., p. 57. c Loc. cit. 
