ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICBOSCOPY, ETC. 
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from tlie results of other workers. Prof. Grassi has been led to conclude 
that all the species of Termitids® belong to two main types. These 
are : — (1) A colony presided over by a king and queen, which have 
possessed and shed fully developed wings. When orphaned, it is headed 
by a pair of royal substitutes or neoteinic forms. (2) A colony at the 
head of which are numerous neoteinic queens, the kings — also neoteinic 
— being present for short periods only. The colony is not founded by 
the royal forms which govern it ; the neoteinic forms have been raised 
by a detached portion of a pre-existing colony, which thus founds a new 
and independent society. 
Many fully winged insects emerge every year from the nest of Calo- 
termes flavicollis and Tevmes lucifugus. A certain number of those 
belonging to the former species succeed in founding new colonies ; but 
those of the latter are all irretrievably lost under natural conditions — at 
least in Sicily. The males and females swarm separately, and con- 
sanguineous pairing is thereby rendered difficult. The winged Calotermes 
settle on decayed trees, get rid of their wings, and begin to burrow. 
The sexes meet and pair, and each pair begins to found a fresh colony. 
Such pairs have the antennae mutilated, and these organs are never found 
intact in a royal pair either of Calotermes or Termes. Termites com- 
municate among themselves chiefly by a jerking convulsion of the whole 
body. The tibial organ, discovered by Fritz Muller, is tympanic, and 
probably auditory. Termites appear to hear the sounds produced by 
the convulsive movements. Members of the same nest recognise each 
other. 
The food of Termitidae consists of — (1) Triturated particles of dead or 
decayed wood. (2) The material disgorged by their fellows, wood-particles 
mixed with saliva. (3) The excrement of their fellows : this is their 
favourite food, and they solicit it by caressing the abdomen of another 
insect with their feet. It is not sufficient to maintain life unless wood 
is procurable. Thus a colony of soldiers which cannot gnaw wood soon 
dies of starvation ; but one large larva which is constantly burrowing 
can keep eight or ten soldiers alive. (4) Dead, moribund, or even 
healthy but superfluous individuals of the same species. (5) The 
salivary secretion of their fellows (a transparent alkaline liquid). Occa- 
sionally they imbibe water, but not habitually. 
The colony can modify the development of a certain number of in- 
dividuals, which would normally become perfect insects, by varying the 
quantity and proportion of their nutriment. It thus obtains workers, 
soldiers, and neoteinic forms. The neoteinic forms become sexually 
mature without fully acquiring the perfect instar, and thus preserve the 
facies of the larva or nymph ; they consist of substitute or complementary 
kings and queens. These transformations can take place without limita- 
tion as to age in the individuals selected. The larvae and nymphs 
administer a large quantity of saliva to individuals destined to become 
neoteinic. This causes the disappearance of the parasitic Protozoa 
otherwise always found within the alimentary canal. The importance 
of this is not clearly understood ; but it is not sufficient in itself to pro- 
duce neoteinia. Newly born larvae receive nothing but saliva ; those in 
process of becoming workers or soldiers receive little or none. Termes 
lucifugus often migrates from one tree to another, carrying eggs and 
