Abstract
This chapter discusses the morphogenetic mechanisms that generate castes in termites and ants. Bees and wasps are mentioned in passing for comparison. In both termites and ants, though one is exo- and the other endopterygote, the reproductive and flight systems mature last in ontogeny and there is some evidence that, compared with the male, they are retarded as part of the mechanism generating polymorphism. Thus, the main stem of development which lead to a winged dispersive imago has gaps from which the metastable norm leaves and develops without either reproductive or flight systems, or with reproductive but without a flight system. The chapter also explains that in the honeybee—which has the greatest caste differences found in bees and wasps—the control of caste is entirely nutritive; there is no blastogenic effect as in ants and in termites. Juvenile hormone is the operator in all caste development systems whether Isopteran or Hymenopteran. Its withdrawal is used to destabilize the normal development programme and cause fixation of the set of organ systems that characterize apterygote insects.
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