['Social insects (ants, bees, wasps and termites) are considered as prime examples of altruism in which individuals (workers) forego their own reproduction to help other individuals reproduce. Such a behaviour is favoured by natural selection because the workers rear close kin and in doing so enhance their inclusive fitness.', "Here I show, however, that this does not generally apply to termite workers which are scarcely investigated. In the basal drywood termite Cryptotermes secundus the 'workers', which form the large majority of a colony, did not stay to raise relatives. There is no brood caring behaviour and they do not engage in costly help. They are large immature offspring that develop into either winged (dispersing) or unwinged (replacement) reproductives and the probability that they did so was unaffected by the number of brood in the nest as a brood addition experiment showed."] Do workers of a drywood termite work?