Page:Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living.djvu/168



proves suitable, the fernale begins digging into the wood or into the ground beneath it, using her jaws as exca- vating tools, perhaps helped a little by the male, and soon a shaft is sunk at the end of which a cavity is hol- lowed out of sufficient size to accornrnodate the pair and to serve the purposes of a nest where true rnatrirnony m ay begin. Naturally it would be a very difficult rnatter to follow the whole course of events in the building of a termite cornrnunity from one of these newly married pairs, for the termites live in absolute seclusion and any disturbance of their nests breaks up the routine of their lives and frustrates the efforts of the investigator. Many phases, however, of the life and habits of our cornrnon eastern United States termites, particularly of species belonging to the genus Reticulitermes, have been discovered and recorded in nurnerous papers by Dr. T. E. Snyder of the U. S. Bureau of Entornology, and, thanks to Doctor Snyder's work, we are able to give the following accourir of the life of these termites and the history of the de- veloprnent of a fairly cornplex cornrnunity fforn the progeny of a single pair of insects. The young rnarried couple live amicably together in conjugal relations within their narrow cell. The male, perhaps, was forced to eject a would-be rival or two, but eventually the rnouth of the tunnel is perrnanently sealed, and fforn now on the lives of this pair will be cornpletely shut in from the outside world. In due tirne, a rnonth or six weeks after the rnating, the fernale lays her first eggs, six or a dozen of thern, deposited in a rnass on the floor of the charnber. About ten days thereafter the eggs hatch, and the new home becornes enlivened with a brood of little termites. The young termites, though active and able to run about, are hOt capable of feeding thernselves, and the parents are now conffonted.with the task of keeping a dozen growing appetites appeased. The feeding formula

[ 3 6 ]

TERMITES