The Termites, or White Ants 
i o i 
characters and the composition of the termite communities. The body 
is always soft, and usually milky-whitish in color, though sometimes light 
or dark brown. It is plump, and slightly broader than thick. The abdo¬ 
men is joined broadly to the thorax, not by a little stem or peduncle as in 
the ants, with which insects the name “white 
ants” (unfortunately too long and widely 
used to be done away with) confuses the 
termites in the popular mind. The termites 
not only are not ants, but are neither nearly 
related to them nor of similar structure. 
The only resemblances between the two forms 
exist in the communal life and in the com¬ 
position of the community by different kinds 
of individuals. The termites are either blind 
or have only simple eyes, have slender an¬ 
tennae which look as if made up of tiny beads 
strung a-row, and have biting mouth-parts 
with strong jaws. They live in small or large 
communities, the individuals in any one of 
which, although belonging to the same species, 
being of from three to eight different kinds 
or castes. That is, each community is com¬ 
posed of winged and wingless individuals, 
the winged being males and females, while 
the wingless include immature individuals, 
sexually incomplete workers and soldiers, 
and also so-called complemental males and 
females which are individuals able to help 
in the increase of the community. In some 
species there are no workers, while in others 
the workers may be of two kinds. The 
soldiers differ from all the others in the 
extraordinary development of their jaws, 
which are long and scissor-like; their heads 
are also much enlarged and strongly chitin- 
ized. The food of all consists mainly of 
dead wood, and of curious pellets excreted 
from the intestine and called “proctodeal 
food.” In addition some species attack live wood and even soft plants, 
and cloth, books, papers, etc., suffer from termite ravages. The serious 
nature of their attacks on wood will be referred to later. * 
The development of the termites is apparently simple; the wingless 
Fig. 133. —Termite shed on 
cocoanut-palm in Samoa. From 
the shed note numerous tunnels 
leading down to the ground, in 
which is the main nest of the 
community; a few tunnels (only 
one visible in the picture) lead 
up the trunk of the tree. (Pho¬ 
tograph by the author.) 
