xv, i Uichanco: Philippine Mound-building Termites 63 
tical eggs. A full-grown queen lays eggs at the rate of thirty 
to sixty a minute. The workers remove the eggs immediately 
after they are extruded and carry them away to be taken care 
of in the nurseries. 
The original king does not live long, being probably replaced 
many times during the existence of the colony. The queen’s 
life has been estimated to last about twenty years. Certain 
species of termites insure the perpetuation of their colony 
by providing for a substitute queen, sometimes designated ne- 
oteinic. The latter is distinguishable from the true queen by 
th^ absence of any indication of her having ever attained the 
power of flight. She is fully as capable of reproduction as the 
time queen, but does not live quite so long. 
The soldiers and the workers are asexual individuals. They 
have no external indication of the organs of sight and never 
develop wings. They avoid the light and build protective covers 
wherever they go, though there is a species of black termites 5 
which travels readily in the daylight through forests and in 
open places when necessary. Numerous passageways radiate in 
all directions, under or upon the surface of the ground, from 
their nests to the objects of their attack — old logs, living tree 
trunks, house posts, fences; in fact, all kinds of ligneous ma- 
terials that may come within their reach. Accompanied by a 
comparatively small number of soldiers, a number of workers 
set out upon their work in regular processions, usually under 
cover of dirt tunnels. The others that remain at home are 
on duty attending the queen, the eggs, and the young ; enlarging 
the mound; harvesting the crops; protecting the nest against 
intruding enemies (of which the worst is a species of red ant, 
Solenopsis geminata Fabr., very frequently found living in large 
colonies within easy reach of the mounds) ; and keeping the 
mound in a healthy and sanitary condition. To keep their nest 
clean, the termites maintain, or otherwise encourage, in their 
colony a force of scavengers, often termed “guests,” consisting 
of beetles, earwigs, cockroaches, spring-tails, and myriapods, 
which continually rid the premises of waste materials. 
Communication among the termites is undoubtedly carried 
on by means of their senses of touch and of smell. They have 
a remarkable ability to locate the different places in the perfectly 
dark nest, and can start on long journeys and search out their 
various necessities with an admirable degree of precision. A 
6 Probably not a mound-building species. 
