_— 
tall Bs Wiel bah ag > Si 

406 THE INSECT WORLD. 
soldiers are the pupe. M. de Quatrefages admits that the soldiers 
are the neuters, and that the workers are recruited both from the 
larvee and from the pupew. It may be. admitted, with other natu- 
ralists, that the soldiers and the workers are neuters: the first, 
abortive males, the second, abortive females. Here is, indeed, what 
M. Lespés has observed in the Termites of the Landes. Among 
these insects, the most numerous are the workers: their size is 
that of a large ant, and their duties are to excavate galleries, to 
search for provisions, and to take care of the eggs, the larvee, and 
the pup. The workers have a rounded head and short mandibles, 
and are blind. The soldiers, less numerous, have an enormous 
head,—nearly as big as the rest of their body,—very strong crossed 
mandibles, and are blind like the workers. Anatomy showed M. 
Lespés that both are newters—that is, the soldiers males, and the 
workers females, with aborted organs. 
The larvae of the females much resemble the workers. Those 
which are to become males or females are distinguished from those 
which are to become neuters by very slight rudiments of wings, 
and their pupez show already imperfect wings, hidden in cases; 
furthermore, they have eyes hidden under the skin. The males and 
females alone have eyes; they also have wings, which they lose 
immediately after the coupling. Those which proceed from the 
pup with long wing-cases become kings and queens after their 
swarming, which takes place at the end of May. The pup with 
short wing-cases become perfect in the month of August, and pro- 
duce larger males and females, which become the kings and queens. 
All these couples are collected by the neuters, and the queens, 
large and small, set to work immediately to lay. The largest are 
much the more fruitful. The workers do not seem to take any 
care of them at all. With the exception of this last peculiarity, 
everything probably goes on in the same manner with the exotic 
Termites; but with the latter the queen is an object of worship. 
Fig. 381 represents the four types of the republic of the Zermes 
lucifugus. On the left is a worker, on the right a soldier, in the 
centre a winged male; all three very much magnified, the lines 
drawn by their side showing the natural size. Below the male is 
the pregnant queen ( D D D JD), of the natural size. 
Many species of Termites were studied with care by the Enghsh 


