INSECTS
instincts, however, attain maturity, and these short-winged individuals, therefore, become males and females capable of procreation. They differ from the fully-winged sexual forms in a few respects other than the length of the wings, and they constitute a true caste of the termite community, that of the short-winged males and females (Fig. 80). The members of this caste mature along with the others, and, Doctor Snyder tells us, many of them, regardless of their handicap, actually leave the nest at the time the long-winged caste is swarming; as if in them, too, the instinct for flight is felt, though the organs for accomplishing it are unable to play their part. Just what becomes of these unfortunates is a mystery, for Doctor Snyder says that after the swarming none of them is to be found in the nest. It may be that some of them pair and found new colonies after the manner of the winged forms, but the facts concerning their history are not known. It is at least true that colonies are sometimes found which have no true royal pair, but in which the propagating individuals are members of this short-winged reproductive caste.
Finally, there are also found in the termite colonies certain wingless individuals that otherwise resemble the winged forms, and which, as the latter, are functionally capable of reproduction when mature. These individuals constitute a third reproductive caste—the wingless males and females. Little is known of the members of this caste, but it is surmised that they may leave the nests by subterranean passages and found new colonies of their own.
Just how long the primary queen of a colony can keep on laying eggs is not known, but in the course of years she normally comes to the end of her resources, and before that time she may be injured or killed through some accident. Her death in any case, however, does not mean the end of the colony, for the king may provide for the continuance of his race, and at the same time console
[ 140 ]
