XV, 4 
Oshima: Formosan Termites 
333 
Table II. — Time between swarming and egg laying — Continued. 
RECORDS FOR 1916. 
Days after swarming. 
Cases. 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
12 
9 
3 
7 
8 
9 
3 
2 
3. The rate of egg laying is not rapid in the first batch, one to four 
eggs being laid on one day. 
4. Eggs hatch out in from twenty-four to thirty-two days after they are 
laid. 
5. After five months of captivity, the nests in two of the tubes were 
opened. In these there were no unhatched eggs; the king and the 
queen, which still retained the normal form of the imago, ran 
actively, in company with rather small individuals of the worker 
type and soldiers. The number of individuals in each nest agreed 
well; one contained twenty-two individuals of the worker type 
and two soldiers, the other, twenty individuals of the worker type 
and three soldiers. These facts clearly show that about twenty- 
five eggs compose the first batch in a newly established colony, 
and that no more eggs are laid until the eggs of the first brood 
are all hatched. 
6. In the first brood the soldiers are few in comparison with individuals 
of the worker type, about 10 per cent of the number of the latter 
being soldiers. 
7. Soldiers hatch from the eggs that are laid by true royal females. 2 
Coptotermes formosanus does not construct a large mound 
as do some species in the Tropics. Usually it makes its nest 
in the ground at a depth of from 6 to 10 feet (1.82 to 3.04 
meters) . Very often the nest is made at the junction of rafters 
of buildings or in the inner part of infested timbers, in wooden 
boxes or cabinets, or in the interspaces in walls. Generally 
the nest is round and honeycombed, and in the center there 
is a small, slitlike royal chamber (Plate II; Plate III, fig. 2). 
The nest consists of a mixture of abdominal excreta and 
clay or sand, pasted together with a special secretion of the 
salivary glands. Sometimes it is rigid and compact and seems 
like a piece of rock. However, it is inflammable and burns 
rapidly, leaving a small amount of ash. 
2 As it is almost impossible from external characters to draw a fast line 
between larvae of royal forms and of workers, nothing at present can be 
said with regard to the origin of these two forms. 
SITUATION OF THE NEST 
