102 
The Termites, or White Ants 
workers resemble closely, except in size, the just-hatched young; the soldiers 
have but to acquire their largeness of head and mandibles, and the perfect 
insects their wings. But there is a serious complexity in termite develop¬ 
ment in that at hatching all the young are alike, and the different castes 
or kinds of individuals become differentiated during the postembryonic 
development, i.e., after hatching. This matter is discussed later. 
In the United States but seven species of this order of insects are known. 
They represent three genera, which may be distinguished by the following 
table: 
Key to Genera. 
Simple eyes absent.. Termopsis. 
Simple eyes present. 
Tarsi with a pul villus (little pad) between the claws; prothorax large and 
oblong; costal (anterior) area of the wings veined. .Calotermes. 
Tarsi without terminal pulvillus; prothorax cordate; costal area of wings 
without veins. Termes. 
Termopsis and Calotermes each include two species, all four limited 
to the Pacific Coast; while Termes includes three species, of which but one, 
T. flavipes , is found in the northeastern states. This has been introduced from 
America into Europe, and is well known there. The other two species, and 
flavipes also, are found in the southwestern and Pacific coast states. Thus 
Termes flavipes (Figs. 134 and 135) is the only representative of the order Isop- 
tera which can be observed and studied in the East, 
but it is so commonly distributed that the student of 
insects in almost any locality can find its communities. 
Despite its abundance, however, the long time it has 
been known, and the very interesting nature of its 
habits, its life-history is not yet wholly worked out. 
It makes its nest in or under old logs and stumps. 
Sometimes it mines a nest in the beams and rafters of 
old houses. Howard records the serious injuries done 
to a handsome private residence in Baltimore through 
the mining of the first-floor timbers by the hidden termites. Comstock 
has found them in the southern states infesting living plants, particularly 
orange-trees, guava-bushes, and sugar-cane. According to Comstock, they 
attack that part of the living plant which is at or just below the surface 
of the ground. In the case of pampas-grass the base of the stalk is 
hollowed; with woody plants, as orange-trees and guava-bushes, the bark 
of the base of the trunk is eaten, and frequently the tree is completely 
girdled; with sugar-cane the most serious injury is the destruction of the 
seed-cane. 
Fig. 134. — T. flavi¬ 
pes, worker. (After 
Marlatt; natural 
size indicated by 
line.) 
