1933 ] 
Conditioned Behavior Among Termites 
125 
CONDITIONED BEHAVIOR AMONG TERMITES 
(ISOPTERA) 
By Alfred E. Emerson 
University of Chicago 
At the present time, no adequate observation indicating 
that the behavior of termites may be conditioned has been 
recorded. In several instances, so-called “intelligent” be- 
havior of termites has been described or assumed (Bug- 
nion, 1927; Hingston, 1929, 1932), but in none of these 
cases is it clearly shown that a termite behaves differently 
in the same situation before and after an experience. In 
as much as conditioned responses have been adequately 
demonstrated in various insects including ants, bees and 
cockroaches, it seems entirely possible that termites also 
are capable of learning, but experiments with rigid control 
have not been performed on termites with positive results. 
Julius F. Bosen has performed preliminary experiments 
with a simple maze similar to that used successfully by 
Gates and Allee (1933) for cockroaches. No indication of 
conditioning was detected, possibly owing to the fact that 
blind worker termites were used. The reward was a rela- 
tively moist chamber to which the termites reacted posi- 
tively. 
The following observations were made three years ago 
on a captive colony of Reticulitermes arenincola Goellner 
collected at Miller, Indiana, in the Lake Michigan sand 
dunes. Publication was delayed in the hope that further 
observations and experiments might bring more data to 
bear upon the problem, but this hope has not materialized. 
The captive colony, containing many workers, several 
soldiers, several nymphs, two mature second form queens 
and one mature third form queen resided in apparent har- 
mony in a glass dish with a ground glass cover for a month. 
