ECOLOGICAL STUDIES ON TILE SYMBIOSIS OF TER ITOMYCES ...

The soldiers may also be dimorphic, with trimorphic soldiers In
Pseudacanthotermeso They are also sterile and have strongly chitinised
heads with greatly modified mouthparts for defence. They are a
"stable" caste, incapable of moulting and are always preceded by a
"white soldier" stage which may develop from a larva or worker in the
Flacrotermitinae (Lee and Wood 1971). Their function is to defend the
nest, and the workers when foraging away from the nest. They may
also produce defence secretions.
The primary reproductivos consist of a king and queen, and when
the neat to in the right physiological state it contains secondary
reproductives,
("alates"), which have no function within that nest
but leave it in synchronised flights after the start of the rains to
found new colonies. Following post-flight courtship the newly-
established pairs burrow into the soil and construct a copulariumo
Copulation and oviposition occur and, in the case of Mcrotermes spe A,
the first larvae appear after 28 days (John3on 1980)s The Icing does
not change much during the course of his lifetimos his only function
being to fertilize the queen* In tho Macrotermitinae the queen is
rhysogastric, more or less immobile, produces eggs almost continuously
and lives in a specially von3tructed royal chamber with the kings
The nests may be either hypogeal or epLgeal and monocalic or
polycalice Unlike other termites the nests, mounds and runways are
made solely from soil* The nesto serve to house and protect the
colony, store food and togather with the fungus comb maintain an
optimum environment. which together with the social behaviour of the
termites produces a condition of homeostasis. There is a contimious
exchange of sub3tancess called trophallaxLs, within the colony which
guides the behaviour of Individuals* It includes the exchange of
47.