The Journal of experimental zoology (1910) (14597875838)

Identifier: journalofexperim08harr (find matches)
Title: The Journal of experimental zoology
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Harrison, Ross G. (Ross Granville), 1870-1959 Brooks, William Keith, 1848-1908 Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology American Society of Zoologists
Subjects: Zoology
Publisher: (New York, etc.) Wiley-Liss (etc.)
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MBLWHOI Library



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castes. The researches of Grassi and Sandias have received a certainamount of confirmation from Brunelli (05), who finds that queensof Calotermes flavicollis and Termes lucifugus sometimes becomeinfested with the parasitic Protozoa, and that when this happensthe young oocytes in their ovaries degenerate. Calotermes queensare more susceptible to this form of castration then the queens ofTermes. Brunelli explains the winged soldier observed by Grassiand Silvestris (03) 48 workers of Microcerotermes struncki with Effects of Castration lu Insects 419 well-developed reproductive organs (40 females and 8 males),as being instances ot fertility brought about by a disappearanceof the Protozoa through some unknown cause. Such fertilesoldiers and workers would be comparable to the recoveredspider crabs above described, except that there is no tendencytowards hermaphroditism. It is not altogether improbable that the high and low malesamong the Scarabaeidae, Lucanidae and Forficulid^e are produced
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Fig 6. A, normal worker of Pheidole commutata; B and C mermithergate of same in dorsaland 1 teral view. in some such manner as the workers and soldiers of termites. Itis certainly suggestive that all three of these families of insectslive on decomposing vegetable substances and in situations wherethey become very readily infected with gregarines. Giard (94a)has given good reasons for supposing that the high and low malesof Forficula, which were made the basis of a statistical study byBateson (92), are produced by differences in the number ofgregarines they harbor in their alimentary tract. The French THK JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL ZOOLOdY, VOL. 8, NO. 4. 420 William Morton Wheeler observer says: It is, indeed, possible to predict from the lengthof its forceps whether or not a male Forficula possesses gregarinesand whether these are present in greater or lesser numbers. Sincethese parasites produce a diminution of a secondary sexual char-acter, that is, the length of the forceps, without