Social life in termites
BY
DR. POULAMI ADHIKARY MUKHERJEE
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY
NARAJOLE RAJ COLLEGE
S OCIAL O RGANIZATION I N I NSECTS
In insects social life has evolved only in two orders, namely, Isoptera (termites) and Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants) which make a nest.
They live in colonies of thousands of
individuals that practice division of
labour and social interaction.
SOCIAL LIFE IN TERMITES
Termites were the first animals which started living in colonies and developed a well organised social system about 300 million years ago, much earlier than honey bees, ants and human beings.
Termites colonies are found in regions of Africa, South America, Australia and the United States.
They are social insects but less advanced that ants colonies.
Termites are related more to cockroaches.
The termite colony has three class of individuals and each class includes both sexes.
Termites digest wood and paper.
Some species of termites build nests up to 6 meters in height.
Although termites do not exceed 3-4 mm in size, their Queen is a 4 inch long giant that lies in the royal chamber motionless, since its legs are too small to move its enormous body.
Hence workers have to take care of all its daily chores.
Termite queen is an egg-laying machine that reproduces at an astonishing rate of two eggs per second.
Generally the queen of a termite colony can lay 6,000 to 7,000 eggs per day, and can live for 15 to 20 years.
The other castes, workers and soldiers are highly
devoted to the colony, working incessantly and
tirelessly, demanding nothing in return from the
society.
Soldiers have long dagger-like mandibles with which they defend their nest and workers chew the wood to feed to the queen and larvae and grow fungus gardens for lean periods.
Nasutes are specialized soldiers which specialize in chemical warfare.
They produce a jet of highly corrosive chemical
from their bodies that can dissolve the skin of
enemies and can also help in making galleries
through the rocks.
DESCRIPTION OF TERMITES
These termites use a sophisticated chemical(pheromone) communication system.
Although termites utilize a wide range of pheromones categorized as trail, alarm, aggregation, mating and others.
Trail pheromones is produced by termites when they are trying to get other member of the colony to follow then to a particular area perhaps a new food source for the colony.
Termites dislike daylight, while some species lives in
nests called termitaria.
FERTILE CASTES
It is of 3 types:-
a) LARGE WINGED FORMS: These are king and queen.
The ocelli are usually present. The sole duty of queen is to lay eggs.
b) SHORT WINGED FORM: These are supplementary kings and queens. The wings are short, pad like and vestigial. The ocelli may be present or not.
c) WINGLESS FORM: Wings are absent. The ocelli are
absent.
STERILE CASTES
These are wingless, eyeless and colourless.
The sex organs are rudimentary.
Incapable of reproduction.
It is of 3 types:-
A.WORKERS
B.SOLDIERS
C.NASUTES
A. WORKERS:- They are dimorphic. They are trimorphic in some cases. They construct, repair the nest collect and distribute food.
B. SOLDIERS:- They are larger than the workers. The soldiers defend the colony by killing the intruders with their mandibles.
C. NASUTES:- The nasutes also called the
proboscideans. They possess large head
prolonged into rostrum.
FEEDING AND SWARMING
The termites commonly feed on living as well as dead plant material.
They are able to digest cellulose with the help of symbiotic Protozoa , such as Trichonympha.
The termites also take fungi and dead bodies of their fellows.
In the rainy season true kings and queens are produced in large numbers.
They leave the termitarium through holes made by the
workers and fly away to new sites . This is called
swarming or dispersal flight.
FOUNDING NEW COLONIES
At new site one king and one queen mate shed wings at the preformed breaking point, dig out burrow and start new colony.
The queen lay eggs these eggs are hatch into workers.
Some eggs and nymph are eaten up by the parents.
She is tented by the workers and her abdomen
gets packed with eggs.
When her fertility lessens, her feeding is suspended and she dies of starvation.
Her body is eaten up.
The king changes up little.
He only grows a bit larger due to good diet.
The eggs are oval with pale colour and
smooth.
