BIOLOGY OF THE TERMITES OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 65 
under the stone, but the colony was not large. This queen had no 
trace of wing pads or pigmentation to the compound eyes, if present. 
The abdomen is oblong-ovate, being distended; its length is 5 millime- 
ters. The antennae are mutilated. Workers and soldiers surrounding 
the queen ran up and touched her with the antennae and then evi- 
denced excitement and alarm by the convulsive jerking of the body 
backward and forward. 
This locality is a wooded, rocky hillside at an elevation of about 
3,400 feet above sea level. There had been surface fires through the 
forest. It was noted that termite colonies were unusually abundant 
in the earth under stones in this locality, which is apparently the case 
as the higher elevations are reached. 
On September 15, 1914, near Chain Bridge, Va., well-developed 
nymphs of both the first and second forms of jlavipes were found in a 
colony in the more solid wood of a decaying chestnut stump. There 
is an annual seasonal variation in the degree of development the 
nymphs of the first form have attained by late fall; sometimes the 
wing pads are long and the nymphs apparently nearly mature; in 
other years in March these nymphs will still have comparatively short 
wing pads. There is sometimes also a variation in the different 
colonies. 
DESCRIPTION OP THE REPRODUCTIVE PORMS. 
As has been previously stated, the abdomens of both the young 
queen and male increase slightly in size and become distended after 
swarming. The abdomen of queens (flavipes) that had laid eggs 
during July, in January (9 months after swarming) were oblong and 
somewhat distended, the segments of the abdomen being slightly 
separated and showing white tissue between. The queens are dark 
castaneous in color and the males more blackish. The legs, tarsi, 
and tibiae are markedly light yellowish in color in both sexes. After 
the swarming the abdomens of the males become only slightly dis- 
tended. 
The gradual distension of the abdomen of the queen, brought 
about by ovarian development, necessitates the separation of the ab- 
dominal tergites and sternites, and the connecting tissue between the 
abdominal tergites, pleurites, and sternites becomes remarkably dis- 
tended, or more probably, according to Hagen, a as stated by Riley, 
there is actually further growth after the insect has reached the 
imaginal stage. It may be noticed from the illustration of the true 
queen found by the writer on August 12, 1911 (PL XIII, b), that 
there are two brownish scars located on the pleural tissue, on the right 
side of the abdomen. These were not noticed until the queen was 
a Riley, C. V. Termites, or white ants. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., v. 9, pp. 31-36, 
Apr., 1894. 
