TERMITIDAE. [Illustration: =Fig. 7.=--_Mastotermes darwiniensis_ (Froggatt). The giant termite of Northern Australia, showing the structure of the wings of the male. (“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)] The exact position of these insects in every scheme of classification has been more or less vague, and while some writers place them in the Orthoptera, more include them in the Neuroptera; others again to get over the difficulty have formed a halting ground between the two and called them Pseudo-Neuroptera. In the “Genera Insectorum,” Desneux has followed Brullé and Comstock and placed them in a distinct order as Isoptera. Grassi, one of the greatest living authorities on the anatomy of insects, considers they are allied to the Neuroptera: but taking the broad ground of outward structure upon which the Orders were formed, and comparing the perfect termites, especially my giant species from North Australia, _Mastotermes darwiniensis_, with other families, I consider they are closely allied to the cockroaches, and therefore place them here. Take the wing away from some of the larger species and they have a striking resemblance to earwigs, and one of our greatest authorities on the family (Hagen) actually described a damaged earwig from Japan as a termite. Termites are widely distributed over all the warmer regions of the world, though most numerous in tropical countries; and a number of fossil species have been described from Europe and America. When Hagen’s “Monograph of the Termitidae” was published in 1858, only seven species were recorded from Australia and Tasmania, and one or two of these are very doubtful. In my “Australian Termitidae” (Pro. Linn. Soc. 1896–1897) the number was brought up to 35, and there are probably many more to be discovered, so that the family is very well represented in this country. Our species have been subdivided into nine genera placed in six sub-families, which are chiefly formed on the wing structure. Broadly speaking their habits are very similar, and each nest or community consists of the same castes. First in order come the dark brown perfect winged male and female insects, only found in the regular nests in the early summer months; for soon after their wings are developed, the workers cut openings in the clay walls of the nest, and they fly out in a continuous stream, generally just before sunset, and when all have left the workers again close up the openings for another year. In the winged state they are known as “flying ants,” and on a warm summer night sometimes come in such numbers round the lights, dropping their easily detached wings all over the table, that they are a regular nuisance.