1924 ] Systematic Position of the Family Termitaphididce 265 
Wasmann (e. g. 1911, pp. 228-230) recognises this type of lateral 
lamination of body segments coupled with flattening of the 
ventral surface, as a direct adaptation to termitophily or myr- 
mecophily — as a protection against the owners of the nests in 
which these arthropods live. It is a modified form of the adap- 
tive type which he designates ‘hler Trutztypus.” All the spe- 
cimens of Termitaphididae so far known have been collected in 
company with termites or in their nests. 
The total absence of eyes and ocelli in Termitaphids is prob- 
ably correlated with life in the gloomy recesses of the termite 
nest. The Aradids, themselves living in a cryptozoic habitat, 
have advanced a stage in this direction in that ocelli are lacking. 
The absence of wings in Termitaphids is similarly explicable. 
The peculiar structure of the antennae, by which a superficially 
cryptocerate condition has been achieved, has been explained as 
a provision for tucking these organs under the cephalic laminae. 
The antennae are inserted very near the lateral margin and are 
folded in towards the rostrum. 
The chief remaining morphological distinction between 
the Termitaphids and the Aradids lies in the structure of the ros- 
trum and related parts. The head itself differs considerably. In 
the former it is more flattened and exhibits on side margins 
and fore-border a remarkable lamination with division into two 
main lobes on each side. This condition could perhaps be derived 
from that of a typical Aradid by an antero-lateral extension and 
lamination on each side of the tylus, so that the latter instead of 
forming the anterior projection of the head as in most Aradids, 
came to lie at the posterior end of a deep incision extending 
caudad from the anterior margin of the head. 
So far as the rostrum is concerned the Aradids show a 
condition which has been described as apparantly three-segment- 
ed but really four-segmented. As a matter of fact, in Cteno- 
neurus at least, (fig. 8) the second segment is peculiarly cons- 
tricted where it lies between the bucculse, but four distinct 
segments are easily discernible. In Termitaphids the bucculse 
form no appreciable sulcus for the rostrum. Wasmann des- 
cribed and figured the rostrum of Termitaphis as three-segmented 
and such it decidedly appears to be to all but the most searching 
