Indeed, we do not know the primitive stages of the social life with those Pseudo-Neuroptera which are known by the wrong name of white ants, and which constitute the great family of Termitidce. All the species of this family form communistic societies of a high type, with a permanent royal couple and with neuters. The royal couple establishes the nest and devotes itself thereafter to reproductive functions. It gives out first male or female neuters, always wingless, then at certain times sexual and winged forms, which swarm to couple and establish new colonies. A special treatment permits them, when it is necessary, to transform the neuters of one or the other sex into fertile individuals which replace the royal couple.

By their structure, the termites are closely related to the cockroaches, and we know that our common cockroach, that one which ranges in the bakeries and the kitchens, is distinguished by a great sociability. Lameere has established the fact that the termites became separated from the cockroach family in the course of the tertiary epoch.