Insects Injurious to Forests and Forest Products (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 Excerpt: ...the antennae. Often the male and female run in a circle of small diameter, and sometimes the pursued turns pursuer, apparently attracted by some secretion at the posterior end of the body.a Sometimes as many as three individuals may be seen running off together. This is apparently due to sexual attraction, an amatory procedure preliminary to pairing, which accomplishes the purpose of bringing the sexes together. This continues for several days after the flight. The sexes are attracted to each other at a period several days before swarming, as is evidenced by the fact that when a colony is broken into there is a short flight, followed by loss of the wings, after which the male follows the female in the.same manner as after normal swarming. Neither of the terms "swarm" or "nuptial flight" is appropriate in referring to the emergence of the colonizing sexed adult termites, since the insects after a short flight separate into pairs, or the males and females may even "pair" (but do not "mate" sexually till later) with individuals of other colonies, and never congregate again in the same colony, but form many new colonies. In the case of bees, on the contrary, after the swarm subsides the insects all together form one new colony. Furthermore, copulation does not take place at the time of the swarm, which is not a "nuptial flight." THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW COLONIES. Many investigators have considered that the foundation of new colonies by winged sexed adults was impossible, and was not the purpose of the swarm, but Ferris (1876), Perez (1894), and Heath (1903) disproved this. For several days after swarming the now wingless sexed adults can commonly be found together under small pieces of decaying wood, lying on th...