KNOW ABOUT THE TERMITES.

 

  WHO ARE THE TERMITES.

 

TERMITES

This are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites were once classified in a separate order from cockroaches, but recent phylogenetic studies indicate that they evolved from cockroaches, as they are deeply nested within the group, and the sister group to wood eating cockroaches of the genus Cryptocercus. Previous estimates suggested the divergence took place during the Jurassic or Triassic. More recent estimates suggest that they have an origin during the Late Jurassic, with the first fossil records in the Early Cretaceous. About 3,106 species are currently described, with a few hundred more left to be described. Although these insects are often called "white ants"they are not ants, and are not closely related to ants.

All colonies have fertile males called "kings" and one or more fertile females called "queens". Termites mostly feed on dead plant material and cellulose, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, soil, or animal dung. Termites are major detritivores, particularly in the subtropical and tropical regions,like Tanzania and their recycling of wood and plant matter is of considerable ecological importance.

Termites are among the most successful groups of insects on Earth, colonising most landmasses except Antarctica. Their colonies range in size from a few hundred individuals to enormous societies with several million individuals. Termite queens have the longest known lifespan of any insect, with some queens reportedly living up to 30 to 50 years. Unlike ants, which undergo a complete metamorphosis, each individual termite goes through an incomplete metamorphosis that proceeds through egg, nymph, and adult stages. Colonies are described as superorganisms because the termites form part of a self-regulating entity: the colony itself.

They are social insects living in a colony with many forms of termites doing different jobs. The workers are blind and have no wings. They feed and take care of the other termites, dig tunnels, find food and water, keep house taking care of the nest. The soldiers keep the colony safe from predators. The king's only job it to fertilize the eggs. The queen lays the eggs and is much bigger than the other termites.

 

Giving life to the colony

The function of the Queen and King in the termite colony is to reproduce. Starting out life each as an Elate, they leave their parents' colony, drop to the ground and shed their wings to seek out an environment in which to nest. They care for their young until they are able to take over the duties of the colony.

Like ants and some bees and wasps from the separate order Hymenoptera, termites divide as "workers" and "soldiers" that are usually sterile.

TERMITE TEAM WORK

The 'doers'

The workers make up the largest number within a colony. They do all of the work (except defend and reproduce): feeding, grooming, excavating the nest and making tunnels. In doing their jobs, they cause the destruction that affects so many homes.

TERMITE SOLDIERS

The colony's deface

Soldiers defend the colony against attack by predatory enemies such as ants, and are equipped with large jaws, sticky fluids or chemical spray to do so.

ALATES

The future Queens and Kings

Alates are the winged reproductive that swarm out from the nest and establish new colonies. Male and females pair off and look for a suitable environment to mate. They are often confused for moths!

 

TYPES OF TERMITES HOME

• Mud-tunnel builders: Due to the fact that they need food sources, they are required to sometimes move above the surface of the ground. This is when they build mud tunnels. These mud tunnels serve two purposes, firstly, as previously mentioned, to control the humidity in the air in order to prevent desecration and secondly to protect them from natural enemies such as ants. 
• Soft bodied insects that rely on high humidity and moisture in the air to survive as they have a very permeable "skin" which leads to constant moisture and gas exchange through it. Within the soil they can control the humidity in the air and thus create a perfect living environment for themselves.
• They nest underground (hence the term "subterranean").
• These termites will move about below the surface of the ground as much as possible and build tunnels for shorts distances to get from one point of cover to the next making detection challenging.

TERMITES AND HUMAN 

 

Termites have several effects on humans. They are a delicacy in the diet of some human cultures and are used in many traditional medicines. Several hundred species are economically significant as pests that can cause serious damage to buildings, crops, or plantation forests. Some species, such as the West Indian dry wood termite (Cryptotermes brevis), are regarded as invasive speci

Worker termites undertake the most labor within the colony, being responsible for foraging, food storage, and brood and nest maintenance. Workers are tasked with the digestion of cellulose in food and are thus the most likely caste to be found in infested wood. The process of worker termites feeding other nestmates is known as trophallaxis. Trophallaxis is an effective nutritional tactic to convert and recycle nitrogenous components. It frees the parents from feeding all but the first generation of offspring, allowing for the group to grow much larger and ensuring that the necessary gut symbionts are transferred from one generation to another. Some termite species may rely on nymphs to perform work without differentiating as a separate caste. Workers may be male or female and are usually sterile, especially in termites that have a nest site that is separate from their foraging site. Sterile workers are sometimes termed as true workers while those that are fertile, as in the wood-nesting Archotermopsidae, are termed as false workers.

The soldier caste has anatomical and behavioral specializations, and their sole purpose is to defend the colony. Many soldiers have large heads with highly modified powerful jaws so enlarged they cannot feed themselves. Instead, like juveniles, they are fed by workers. Fontanelles, simple holes in the forehead that exude defensive secretions, are a feature of the family Rhinotermitidae. Many species are readily identified using the characteristics of the soldiers' larger and darker head and large mandibles. Among certain termites, soldiers may use their globular (phragmotic) heads to block their narrow tunnels. Different sorts of soldiers include minor and major soldiers, and nasutes, which have a horn-like nozzle frontal projection (a nasus). These unique soldiers are able to spray noxious, sticky secretions containing diterpenes at their enemies. Nitrogen fixation plays an important role in nasute nutrition. Soldiers are usually sterile but some species of Archotermopsidae are known to have neotenic forms with soldier-like heads while also having sexual organs.

The primary reproductive caste of a colony consists of the adult form (imago) female and male individuals, colloquially known as the queen and king. The queen of the colony is responsible for egg production for the colony. Unlike in ants, the king mates with her for life. In some species, the abdomen of the queen swells up dramatically to increase fecundity, a characteristic known as physogastrism. Depending on the species, the queen starts producing reproductive alates at a certain time of the year, and huge swarms emerge from the colony when nuptial flight begins. These swarms attract a wide variety of predators.

WHAT TERMITES EAT

Termites are detritivores, consuming dead plants at any level of decomposition. They also play a vital role in the ecosystem by recycling waste material such as dead wood, feces and plants. Many species eat cellulose, having a specialised midgut that breaks down the fibre. Termites are considered to be a major source (11%) of atmospheric methane, one of the prime greenhouse gases, produced from the breakdown of cellulose. Termites rely primarily upon symbiotic protozoa (metamonads) and other microbes such as flagellate protists in their guts to digest the cellulose for them, allowing them to absorb the end products for their own use. The microbial ecosystem present in the termite gut contains many species found nowhere else on Earth. Termites hatch without these symbionts present in their guts, and develop them after fed a culture from other termites. Gut protozoa, such as Trichonympha, in turn, rely on symbiotic bacteria embedded on their surfaces to produce some of the necessary digestive enzymes. Higher termites, especially in the family Termitidae, can produce their own cellulose enzymes, but they rely primarily upon the bacteria. The flagellates have been lost in Termitidae. Researchers have found species of spirochetes living in termite guts capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen to a form usable by the insect. Scientists' understanding of the relationship between the termite digestive tract and the microbial endosymbionts is still rudimentary; what is true in all termite species, however, is that the workers feed the other members of the colony with substances derived from the digestion of plant material, either from the mouth or anus. Judging from closely related bacterial species, it is strongly presumed that the termites' and cockroach's gut microbiota derives from their dictyopteran ancestors.

TERMITES DEFENCE SYSTEM.

Termites rely on alarm communication to defend a colony. Alarm pheromones can be released when the nest has been breached or is being attacked by enemies or potential pathogens. Termites always avoid nestmates infected with Metarhizium anisopliae spores, through vibration signals released by infected nest mates.

   Other methods of defense include intense jerking and secretion of fluids from the frontal gland and defecating faeces containing alarm pheromones.

In some species, some soldiers block tunnels to prevent their enemies from entering the nest, and they may deliberately rupture themselves as an act of defense. In cases where the intrusion is coming from a breach that is larger than the soldier's head, soldiers form a phalanx-like formation around the breach and bite at intruders. If an invasion carried out by Megaponera analis is successful, an entire colony may be destroyed, although this scenario is rare.

To termites, any breach of their tunnels or nests is a cause for alarm. When termites detect a potential breach, the soldiers usually bang their heads, apparently to attract other soldiers for defense and to recruit additional workers to repair any breach. Additionally, an alarmed termite bumps into other termite which causes them to be alarmed and to leave pheromone trails to the disturbed area, which is also a way to recruit extra workers.

Workers use several different strategies to deal with their dead, including burying, cannibalism, and avoiding a corpse altogether. To avoid pathogens, termites occasionally engage in necrophoresis, in which a nest mate carries away a corpse from the colony to dispose of it elsewhere.

Termites nest is divided in two parts, the inanimate and the animate. The animate is all of the termites living inside the colony, and the inanimate part is the structure itself, which is constructed by the termites. Nests can be broadly separated into three main categories: subterranean (completely below ground), epigeal (protruding above the soil surface), and arboreal (built above ground, but always connected to the ground via shelter tubes). Epigeal nests (mounds) protrude from the earth with ground contact and are made out of earth and mud. A nest has many functions such as providing a protected living space and providing shelter against predators. Most termites construct underground colonies rather than multifunctional nests and mounds. Primitive termites of today nest in wooden structures such as logs, stumps and the dead parts of trees, as did termites millions of years ago.

To build their nests, termites primarily use faeces, which have many desirable properties as a construction material. Other building materials include partly digested plant material, used in carton nests (arboreal nests built from faecal elements and wood), and soil, used in subterranean nest and mound construction. Not all nests are visible, as many nests in tropical forests are located underground. Species in the subfamily Apicotermitinae are good examples of subterranean nest builders, as they only dwell inside tunnels. Other termites live in wood, and tunnels are constructed as they feed on the wood. Nests and mounds protect the termites' soft bodies against desiccation, light, pathogens and parasites, as well as providing a fortification against predators. Nests made out of carton are particularly weak, and so the inhabitants use counter-attack strategies against invading predators.

Those made from carton can provide protection from the rain, and in fact can withstand high precipitation. Certain areas in mounds are used as strong points in case of a breach. For example, Cubitermes colonies build narrow tunnels used as strong points, as the diameter of the tunnels is small enough for soldiers to block. A highly protected chamber, known as the "queen's cell", houses the queen and king and is used as a last line of defence.

Species in the genus Macrotermes arguably build the most complex structures in the insect world, constructing enormous mounds. These mounds are among the largest in the world, reaching a height of 8 to 9 meters (26 to 29 feet), and consist of chimneys, pinnacles and ridges. Another termite species, Amitermes meridionalis, can build nests 3 to 4 meters (9 to 13 feet) high and 2.5 meters (8 feet) wide. The tallest mound ever recorded was 12.8 meters (42 ft) long found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

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