1. Gut content analysis of termites was undertaken using microscopical techniques. The 46 study species covered the entire range of taxonomic and feeding forms within the Order.2. Inter-speci®c gut contents data were analysed using principal components analysis, placing species along a clear humi®cation gradient based on variations in the amount of silica and plant tissue fragments in the gut.3. Redundancy analysis was used to ®nd morphological correlates of the observed variation in gut contents. A total of 22 morphological characters (out of 45 candidate characters) were correlated signi®cantly with the gut contents.4. Three of the 22 signi®cantly correlated characters unambiguously de®ned feeding groups, which were designated groups I to IV in increasing order of humi®cation of the feeding substrate. Group I contains lower termite dead wood and grass-feeders; group II contains Termitidae with a range of feeding habits including dead wood, grass, leaf litter, and micro-epiphytes; group III contains Termitidae feeding in the organic rich upper layers of the soil; group IV contains the true soil-feeders (again all Termitidae), ingesting apparently mineral soil. These groupings were generally supported statistically in a canonical covariance analysis, although group II apparently represents termite species with a rather wide range of feeding habits.5. Using existing hypotheses of termite phylogenetic relationships, it seems probable that group I feeders are phylogenetically basal, and that the other groupings have arisen independently on a number of occasions. Soil-feeding (i.e. group III and group IV feeding) may have evolved due to the co-option of faecal material as a fungal substrate by Macrotermitinae-like ancestral forms. As a consequence, these forms would have been constrained to build nest structures from soil and would therefore have passed at least some soil through their guts.

Abstract. Blowfly larvae (Diptera: Calliphoridae) fulfil an important ecological function in the decomposition of animal remains. They are also used extensively in forensic entomology, predominantly to establish a minimum time since death, or a minimum post-mortem interval, using the larval length as a 'biological clock'. This study examined the larval growth rate of a forensically important fly species, Calliphora vicina Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera: Calliphoridae) at temperatures of between 4 C and 30 C, under controlled laboratory conditions. The laboratory flies had been trapped initially in London, U.K. The minimum developmental temperature was estimated to be 1 C and 4700 accumulated degree hours (ADH) were required for development from egg hatch to the point of pupariation. Lines fitted to the laboratory larval growth data were found to adequately explain the growth of larvae in the field. The nature of variation in growth rates from geographically isolated populations is discussed.

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