Caste formation in the termite genus termopsis

Abstract

In Termopsis nevadensis only soldiers are produced during the first three or four years. When a normal colony comprises approximately twenty inhabitants, the first adult soldier is probably in the fifth instar; the second, somewhat larger, certainly is in the sixth. Later, others are produced in the seventh, and after the reproductive caste becomes differentiated, with about 450 inhabitants, they are in the eighth. Finally, in very old communities, some, at least, are in the ninth. The winged insect invariably is in the eighth.No sign of wings exists until the reproductive caste appears, after which every member of the sixth, and probably the fifth, instar possesses small, yet distinct, wing rudiments. These persist and enlarge in the later stages of the reproductive caste, and, of smaller size, they frequently occur in the soldier nymph and to a less degree in the adult. The third‐form adult is probably a sexually mature soldier nymph; the second‐form adult seemingly has the same origin and, though possessing wing buds, it does not belong to a special caste.Measurements of scores of recently hatched young disclose no differences other than those of ordinary variation, either in width of head, number of antennal segments, or size of brain and gonad. The first visible signs of caste differentiation appear at a relatively late stage. All of the instars are described in detail and the later ones are compared.