winged termites takes place; and just before this
emigration movement occurs, a hive may be seen to be stocked with
"termites" of all castes and in all stages of development. The workers
never exhibit a change of form during their growth; the soldiers begin
to differ from the workers in the possession of larger heads and jaws;
whilst the young which are destined to become the winged males and
females are distinguished by the early possession of the germs of
wings which become larger as the skin is successively moulted. Amongst
the bees, blind Huber supposed that an ordinary or neuter egg develops
into a queen bee if the larva is fed upon a special kind of
food--"royal food," as it is called. Although some entomological
authorities differ from Huber with regard to the exact means by which
the queen bee is reared and specialized from other larvae, yet the
opinion thus expressed possesses a large amount of probability.
Whatever may be the exact method or causes through or by which the
queen bee is developed, Mr. Bates strongly asserts that the
differences between the soldiers and worker termites are distinctly
marked from the egg. This latter observer maintains that the
difference is not due to variations in food or treatment during their
early existence, but is fixed and apparent from the beginning of
development. This fact is worthy of note, for it argues in favor of
the view that if, as is most likely, the differences between the
grades of termites may have originally been produced by natural
selection or other causes, these differences have now become part and
parcel of the constitution of these insects, and are propagated by the
ordinary law of heredity. Thus acquired conditions have become in time
the natural "way of life" of these animals.

Mr. Bates has also placed on record the noteworthy fact that a species
of termites exists in which the members of the soldier class did not
differ at all from the workers "except in the fighting instinct." This
observation, if it may be used at all in elucidation of the origin of
the curious family life of these insects, points not to sudden
creation, but to gradual acquirement and modification as having been
the method of development of the specialized classes and castes in
termite society. Firstly, we may thus regard the beginnings of the
further development of a colony to appear in a nest in which workers
and soldiers are alike, as stated by Mr. Bates. Then, through the
prac