136 
Psyche 
[June 
later in the day near the soil surface) may provide an important cue 
for the initiation of daily flight periods. As more data become avail- 
able further refinements in this type of experimentation are planned 
with several other species of termites in Arizona. 
Flight season. — According to legend in the Sonoran Desert, 
the summer rainy season begins on San Juan’s Day, June 24. The 
rains are also believed to initiate the swarming season of the termites 
in this region ; indeed, in many Latin American localities with a 
similar weather pattern, the swarming alates are called “Palomitas 
de San Juan” (Light, ’34). Legend and meager published informa- 
tion led to some early and rather casual observations which resulted 
in one flight record for Parccneotermes on August 12, 1956; three 
in 1957, on July 10, 14 and 16; and one on July 17, 1959. More 
persistent observation, still within the rainy season, yielded 1 1 flights 
from July 5 through 29, 1961. Guided by experience of previous 
seasons and new knowledge that alate production may begin in early 
June, intensive observations were made from mid-May to mid- 
September in 1962 and, with the exception of six weeks of June and 
July, again in 1963. Thirty-one flights were thus recorded from 
June 9 through Sept. 7, 1962 (fig. 1), while the first and last flights 
in 1963 were recorded on June 15 and August 19 (fig. 2). These 
records spanning 91 and 66 days attest to a considerably protracted 
flight season for this species, beginning well in advance of the rainy 
season. A flight on May 29, 1965, further expands the cumulative 
seasonal record to 102 days within five consecutive months. T. E. 
Snyder has informed me (’64, in litt.) that the U. S. National 
Museum contains alates caught by light trap on July 6 and August 
15, I947» at Blythe, Riverside Co., California. 
Influence of environmental factors on time of flight. — 
The flights of termites are considered to provide for the foundation 
of new colonies and hence the maintenance and dispersal of the 
species. Extensive observations on the termite fauna in Mexico and 
the southwestern United States have led the writer to conclude that 
matings between sexes from different colonies, in synchronous flights 
ever limited areas, are presumably usual. The idea that sibling 
matings are the rule has been advanced by several authors (Weesner, 
’60, p. 1 61) although, admittedly, either position would be equally 
difficult to prove. Since alates of Paraneoterrnes have never been 
observed emerging from a nest in nature, the following factors ac- 
tually describe the conditions under which flights are known to have 
occurred. A more refined analysis does not yet seem warranted on 
the basis of such data, limited as they are to only two seasons. A 
