Africa Wild

Basic termite biology

Caste differentiation can only be detected when nymphs have completed about twothirds of their development. Neuters (workers and soldiers) are usually blind and wingless and they are sterile.

Workers ar e the sole builders of the nest and mound. Their first priority is to carry out repairs in order to keep the colony sealed-off from possible invasion by predators and the elements. Only adult workers gather food. They remove and transport eggs from thebreeding female (queen) to the nursery and care for them, as well as the resultant hatchlings. Workers also feed and groom the queen and feed the soldiers. In species of Macrotermitinae, they are also responsible for the cultivation and weeding of fungi.

Soldiers are responsible for the defence of the colony. They accompany the foraging workers, patrol galleries and attack any intruders. In Macrotermes, soldiers have formidable mandibles.

Reproductive alates become the founders of new colonies after they have shed theirwings and successfully burrowed. Only 0.5 % survive the
onslaught of predatory animals.

The sole purpose of the small, primary male or king (no enlargement of the abdomen after casting of wings) is to fertilize the queen. The primary queen of M. natalensis is about 10 cm in length and unable to move from one locality to another.

Here a chapter of this book

David Edward Bignell, Yves Roisin, Nathan Lo: Biology of Termites: a Modern Synthesis

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Why don't you see termites around the mound?

David Attenborough narrates life in the termite world.

Snouted Harvester Termite Trinervitermes trinervoides
Family: Termitidae. Subfamily: Nasutitermitinae

Kgalagadi, Polentswa © PRWIN

Trinervitermes trinervoides is a species of termite belonging to family Termitidae. It is native to and widespread in southern Africa where it inhabits mesic to semi-arid grasslands. Due to the snout on the head of soldiers, and their grass collecting habits, they are known as snouted harvester termites.
Trinervitermes are distributed in savannah and grassland ecosystems throughout the paleotropics and their dome-shaped mounds are a common sight in Southern Africa. Closed to the exterior environment and only accessible for the termites through subterranean tunnels, the mounds maintain a relatively stable interior temperature and humidity throughout the day. The centralised nature of termite colonies concentrates nutrients within and around the nest. In Trinervitermes, a large proportion of this nutrient deposition happens in faeces-lined grass-storage chambers.

Distribution and habitat
It is found in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and is widely distributed and common south of the Limpopo River. The species lives in savannah or grassland areas, and avoids barren land. Related species are found in the east of the subcontinent.

Biology
The snouted harvester termite is a mostly nocturnal species. The species stores grass within its mounds, just beneath the surface. Evidence showed that it is likely that the species is not polycalic and thus each mound will house only a single colony.

Foraging behavior
It forages with groups of 3-5 individual wide columns moving from the foraging holes some distance from the main mound and radiating out towards grasses. The species forages during the night and avoids foraging during the winter months of June–August. The foraging itself could last anywhere from 2 hours to 6.5 hours. It feeds as harvester termite. It forages at night. The species forages on the surface completely exposed unlike most similar species of termite. This species is able to manage this by secreting a chemical containing a mixture of diterpenes and monoterpenes. This chemical defense can cause significant internal damage to predators and works to deter the large majority of predators. One of their main predators is aardwolves, which are able to eat up to 300,000 termites a night while seeming unperturbed by this toxin.


Soldier termites in this genus have an interesting defense mechanism, which consists of squirting sticky secretions from their pear-shaped frontal gland when threatened.

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Northern Harvester Termite Hodotermes mossambicus
Family: Hodotermitidae.




© Alf



Hodotermes (from Greek ὁδός (hodós), travelling; Latin termes, woodworm) is a genus of African harvester termites in the Hodotermitidae. They range from Palaearctic North Africa, through the East African savannas to the karroid regions of southern Africa. As with harvester termites in general, they have serrated inner edges to their mandibles, and all castes have functional compound eyes. They forage for grass at night and during the day, and their pigmented workers are often observed outside the nest.


Nests
They nest by excavating in the soil, and the diffuse subterranean system of H. mossambicus may contain several spherical hives which may be 60 cm in diameter. They are interconnected by galleries and are located from near the surface to more than 6 m deep. Loose particles of excavated soil are brought to the surface and dumped at various points around the nest.

Diet
The diet of H. mossambicus consists primarily of ripe and/or frost- or drought-killed grass, though tree and shrub material is consumed to a lesser degree. In a stable isotope study of H. mossambicus, the grass component was found to constitute upwards of 94% of their food intake. In this species, the sixth instar larvae digest and distribute food within the colony[5] by means of stomodeal trophallaxis. The mutual feeding also reinforces the colony's integrity, as the feeders discriminate against individuals with unfamiliar intestinal microbiota.

Castes and activity patterns
The foraging worker caste of H. mossambicus consists of two types, named "small" and "large", and the larger workers are characterized by very large flattened heads. Soldiers of the genus stay near the nest, and are not known to accompany workers on their expeditions. H. mossambicus is known to exhibit a seasonal cycle in its activities, which involves intensive diurnal winter surface foraging followed by a shift to sporadic nocturnal foraging at the beginning of the rainy season. With the advent of spring a shift from a diurnal to a nocturnal foraging pattern is evident.

Breeding
Some three to five days after the first major rains, swarms of flying termites, alates (winged reproductives) emerge from their underground nests during summer evenings. When sufficiently distant from the parent nest, they land, shrug off their wings, and scout about for a mate. The pair then excavates a burrow to start a new colony. A week after swarming, the female lays her first eggs, which are tended by the couple, a task soon taken over by the maturing workers. After some four months, the nest is sufficiently developed to send foraging workers to the surface. For the next few years, most of the eggs develop into workers and a small number of soldiers. When the nest is sufficiently large, winged reproductives again develop.

Predators
Harvester termites in general form the main component in the diet of the diurnal bat-eared fox in east and southern Africa.[16] For this unusual diet, these foxes have 48 small teeth compared to the 42 teeth of all other dogs. They also have large ears to hear the insects in their underground chambers, before they are dug up. Though the aardwolf is a specialized predator of certain Trinervitermes, they may assume a partially diurnal habit in winter to obtain harvester termites. The worker castes present the dominant, and seasonally the exclusive food item of some and Ptenopus gecko species. Ptenopus females especially, seem to gorge on nocturnal foraging congregations in spring to supplement their vitellogeChondrodactylus, Pachydactylus nic requirements.

Economic impact
They can deplete grass in pastures and contribute to soil erosion, but are less effective when grasslands are not overgrazed or disturbed. Over the long term, however, their decomposing and recycling of plant material contribute to soil fertility and the global cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and other elements.

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Termite families:

Desert Cockroach Tivia termes
Family: Corydiidae (Sand Cockroaches)

Corydiidae is a family of the order Blattodea (cockroaches). Many are known as sand cockroaches. The family is divided into five subfamilies, comprising some 40 genera worldwide.

Yellow or maroon roaches, mostly occupying arid areas. Males are winged, the anal fold of hind wings simply folded, not pleated fan-like, when at rest. Females are wingless. Both sexes emit pheromones that are long distance attractants. The case is carried around for a brief period before it is deposited. About 10 species are known from the region.

Tivia termes

KTP, KielieKrankie Wilderness Camp (male)


Identification
Small (body length 12 mm), oval, pale reddish yellow. Wings in males extend beyond end of abdomen.

Biology
Lives under bark of living and of dead trees, especially in very dry woodlands.

Habitat
Arid, open bushveld. Widespread in Africa, range extending to Western Australia.

Related species
There are 3 species in the genus. The other species in the region are found in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.



http://cockroach.speciesfile.org/HomePa ... rsity.aspx

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Fungus-growing Termite Odontotermes sp.
Family Termitidae. Subfamily Macrotermitinae

Kruger National Park, in the road on the S36 near Talamati © Richprins

Identification
Workers have a yellow-brownish head and are blind. Antennae are at both sides of the head. The Thorax is pale and the abdomen is mostly yellow and rest of it is black in color. This black color is the remaining foods in the digestive system.

Soldiers have on-toothed madibels.

Alates have a completely pigmented head, looking black in color. Two black large compound eyes are located on top and side of the head. The antennas are bigger and more pigmented than that of workers. The thorax is extended very much in the alated. The color is as similar as head, black. First segment of thorax is source of one pair of legs. In second and third segments in addition to legs, there are two pairs of wings. Forewings are longer than hindwings. Flying needs spending energy, so, thorax is mostly filled with fat and muscles. The wings are dark brown to black in color but somewhat transparent.


Nests
Their underground nests form a slight mound above ground, which may be covered in grass. In large colonies, the mounds may be up to 6 m in diameter and 1 m in hight, and may be covered by shrubs and trees. Some species construct open chimneys or vent holes that descend into the mound. The fungal garden is enveloped by a thick layer of clay. Of all South African termites the nest of Odontotermes apparently varies most.

Castes
The queen is imprisoned in a clay cell in the midst of the fungal garden at the center of the hive. The African species have a single soldier cast, unlike the related genus Macrotermes.

Food
Their only food is the fungus grown in the fungal garden at the center of the nest. The fungus is cultivated on a substrate of wood, bark, leaf litter, dry dung, and dead grass. These are plastered with cement where they are obtained, which facilitates diurnal foraging. Odontotermes species are major contributors to litter decomposition.