Termites are the architects of the natural world. The nests that they build can reach meters of height, with complex and elaborate structures, galleries that ensure efficient communication and that automatically ventilate ...
Ecology
Apr 11, 2024
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13
In the world of termites studied by Northeastern professor Rebeca Rosengaus, worker termites spend their few short months on Earth cleaning and feeding their enormous long-lived queen mother and tending to her eggs and their ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 19, 2024
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4
Approximately 38 million years ago two termites were in the middle of courtship behavior when they got entrapped by tree resin and preserved in fossilized amber. This, so far, oldest and only-described fossil of an Electrotermes ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 6, 2024
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33
At night in the Cerrado, Brazil's savanna and second-largest biome, larvae of the click beetle Pyrearinus termitilluminans, which live in termite mounds, display green lanterns to capture prey attracted by the bright light.
Plants & Animals
Jan 2, 2024
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34
The discovery that chimpanzees use tools to fish for termites revolutionized our understanding of their abilities—but we still don't have crucial context to help us understand termite fishing and chimpanzee minds. Are chimpanzees ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 17, 2023
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157
The climate control used by termites in their mounds could inspire tomorrow's climate-smart buildings. New research from Lund University in Sweden shows that future buildings inspired by the termites could achieve the same ...
Materials Science
Jul 7, 2023
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Here's something that will send a shiver up the spine of anyone who has battled termites—meaning just about every homeowner in Florida.
Plants & Animals
Jul 5, 2023
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27
Life existed without human beings for more than 99.9% of Earth's history. Yet we often ignore the achievements of species that preceded us by billions of years.
Plants & Animals
Apr 19, 2023
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14
What are "fairy circles"? They are polka dots of bare earth, regularly scattered across arid grasslands. Scientists first described fairy circles in Namibia in the 1970s and sparked a global debate in the scientific community ...
Ecology
Apr 8, 2023
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509
Warming temperatures unleash termites in more areas of the world, and more termites may actually accelerate warming temperatures. Scientists say it's time for climate prediction models to take note.
Ecology
Feb 9, 2023
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2
Mastotermitidae Kalotermitidae Termopsidae Hodotermitidae Rhinotermitidae Serritermitidae Termitidae
The termites are a group of social insects usually classified at the taxonomic rank of order Isoptera (but see also taxonomy below). As truly social animals, they are termed eusocial along with the ants and some bees and wasps which are all placed in the separate order Hymenoptera. Termites mostly feed on dead plant material, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, soil, or animal dung, and about 10% of the estimated 4,000 species (about 2,600 taxonomically known) are economically significant as pests that can cause serious structural damage to buildings, crops or plantation forests. Termites are major detrivores, particularly in the subtropical and tropical regions, and their recycling of wood and other plant matter is of considerable ecological importance.
As eusocial insects, termites live in colonies that, at maturity, number from several hundred to several million individuals. They are a prime example of decentralised, self-organised systems using swarm intelligence and use this cooperation to exploit food sources and environments that could not be available to any single insect acting alone. A typical colony contains nymphs (semi-mature young), workers, soldiers, and reproductive individuals of both genders, sometimes containing several egg-laying queens.
Termites are sometimes called "white ants", though they are unrelated to true ants.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
