1933] Conditioned Behavior Among Termites 127 
had taken no part in the fight was also still alive and well. 
This observation does not readily fit into the class of in- 
herited instinctive behavior. If either or both queens had 
had any characteristic which would stimulate general hos- 
tile action, one would assume that the workers and soldiers 
would have shown hostility and possibly the third queen 
would also have been involved in the fight. General hostile 
action toward a strange termite or other insect often has 
been observed, but in such cases any termite coming into 
contact with the stranger will attack it. These two queens, 
however, showed hostility only to each other (indicating an 
interesting ability to recognize each other) and no other 
termites exhibited hostility to either of them until they 
were badly injured, when the cannibalistic activities well 
known in termite colonies appeared. The observation is in- 
teresting as an example of naturally induced cannibalism. 
The presence of the third queen gives a fairly good con- 
trol against the possibility that this antagonistic behavior 
between the queens was a caste pattern. The fact that all 
three of the queens lived together in harmony before the 
fight occurred also offers a fair control against the possibil- 
ity that this hostile action was induced through hereditary 
caste differences. Field observations summarized in table I 
indicate no evidence of common antagonism between the 
different reproductive castes or individuals, which are often 
found living together harmoniously in the same nest. 
Possibly one might explain such action as inherited in- 
dividual differences occurring at a certain stage in the life 
cycle. It is also possible that the antagonistic behavior 
was in some way induced by an internal physiological influ- 
ence not present at the same time in the third queen. 
Although it must be admitted that these interpretations 
are possible, it seems to the writer that the mutual hostil- 
ity displayed by these queens is best explained on the basis 
of a conditioned response. The nature of the experience 
which may have conditioned these queens to such individu- 
alistic action, however, remains unknown. 
