News tagged with termites
Giving cockroaches the slip (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- A breakthrough by scientists at Cambridge University may terminate the threat of termites, cockroaches and other pests such as ants and locusts - responsible for billions of pounds worth of ...
Oct 13, 2009 |
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Diuscovery in amber reveals ancient biology of termites
The analysis of a termite entombed for 100 million years in an ancient piece of amber has revealed the oldest example of "mutualism" ever discovered between an animal and microorganism, and also shows the ...
May 14, 2009 |
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Insect research gives humans six legs up
(PhysOrg.com) -- You could say that Bert Hölldobler's career began during a childhood walk in the Bavarian woods with his father. The elder Holldobler turned over a rock out in the forest, exposing a colony ...
Jun 30, 2010 |
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Ants, termites boost wheat yields
(PhysOrg.com) -- In an exciting experiment with major implications for food production under climate change, CSIRO and University of Sydney scientists have found allowing ants and termites to flourish increased ...
Mar 30, 2011 |
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Lowly termite, not the lion or elephant, may be the star of Africa's savanna
The majestic animals most closely associated with the African savanna -- fierce lions, massive elephants, towering giraffes - may be relatively minor players when it comes to shaping the ecosystem.
May 25, 2010 |
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Homebound Termites Answer 150-Year-Old Evolution Question
(PhysOrg.com) -- Staying at home may have given the very first termite youngsters the best opportunity to rule the colony when their parents were killed by their neighbors. This is according to new research ...
Oct 05, 2009 |
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Researchers develop method that shows diverse complex networks have similar skeletons
Northwestern University researchers are the first to discover that very different complex networks -- ranging from global air traffic to neural networks -- share very similar backbones. By stripping each network down to its ...
Technology / Computer Sciences
Jun 01, 2012 |
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Termites foretell climate change in Africa's savannas
Using sophisticated airborne imaging and structural analysis, scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology mapped more than 40,000 termite mounds over 192 square miles in the African ...
Sep 07, 2010 |
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Mandrill monkey creates tool for a pedicure (w/ video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a recent paper published in Behavioural Processes, scientists reveal a film of a mandrill monkey creating a tool from a stick in order to remove dirt from underneath its toenails. This new finding shows ...
Jul 25, 2011 |
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Birds do it, bees do it; termites don't, necessarily
Scientists at North Carolina State University and three universities in Japan have shown for the first time that it is possible for certain female termite "primary queens" to reproduce both sexually and asexually ...
Mar 26, 2009 |
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Termites' digestive system could act as biofuel refinery
One of the peskiest household pests, while disastrous to homes, could prove to be a boon for cars, according to a Purdue University study.
Jul 05, 2011 |
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Upping the ant-e: Clever chimps boost termite catch
Chimpanzees not only use a tool to snare termites but are able to modify it as well, a skill that requires conceptual and cultural skills, scientists said on Wednesday.
Mar 04, 2009 |
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Termite creates sustainable monoculture fungus-farming
(PhysOrg.com) -- Food production of modern human societies is mostly based on large-scale monoculture crops, but it now appears that advanced insect societies have the same practice. Our societies took just ...
Nov 20, 2009 |
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Termites eavesdrop on competitors to survive
(PhysOrg.com) -- The drywood termite, Cryptotermes secundus, eavesdrops on its more aggressive subterranean competitor, Coptotermes acinaciformis, to avoid contact with it, according to scientists from CSIRO ...
Aug 26, 2009 |
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Termites travel with fungi as take-away food
Fungi travelled to Madagascar in the intestines of termites. Fungus serves as a source of food and helps in cellulose conversion.
Oct 08, 2009 |
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Termite
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.
For more information about Termite, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
