Trmites

Trmites

• Termites (order isoptera) are social insect and exhibit the most complex social life of all insects. Although termed white ants, they are neither while nor ants. They are brown or pale-coloured soft-bodies insects and are readily distinguished from ants by the absence of a pedicel between thorax and abdomen. They live in colonies with well-organised castes or polymorphism.
• Castes. There are two main castes of termites: fertliel males and females and infertile sterile males and females . Theses are differentiated into winged (alate) and non-winged (dealates) repridreprod individuals and workers, soldiers and nasutes.

1. Workers are wingless  forms with no or under-developed eyes. They collect food , look after the young, attend to the reproductive form and construct nest and passage ways etc.
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3. Soldiers are large -headed, bigger-bodied individual possessing large and strong mandibles possessing large and strong mandibles . They protect the colony from the enemies. In some termites (e.g. Eutermes) the soldiers are replaced by
4. Nasutes which are also wingless and possess a rostrum that pours a sticky secretin for destroying enemies and dissolving hard substances.
5. Reproductive  male and female termites are called king and queen, respectively. They are wingless but devlode from sexual winged frons and live in royal chambers . The queen  has a much organs and eggs.

• Nests Most termites build underground nests . A good number of termites build high and large mounds raised high up the ground. Nests are generally made of chewed soil and contain small chambers with entery galleries and tiny holes servings as exists. There is also a large or royal chambers for the reproductive pair. Certain termites build their nests inside wood or on branches of trees.
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• Food  Cellulos is the principal foodstuff of termites. They feed on dead or living woods, cardboards and papers. Workers and young number, called a swarm. After descending to ground, they mate in pair. The royal couple then excavate a small chamber in soil which marks the beginning of a new colony. Both of them now shed their wings. Mating is repeated at regular intervals as the male cohabit with life. The first cluster of eggs ladid by the queen is looked after by big. The nymps, hatched out of theses egged, develop into many workers, and a few soldiers. In early years only workers and soldiers are formed, but later alates are also produced

            Abdomen of queen grows enormous so that she become 20 to 30 thousand times larger than a worker. On an average, the queen lays 4,000 eggs per day and about one million eggs per years. She lives for about 6 to 9 years.

             In termites, determination of caste depends upon the complex interactions between pheromones , hormones, variable food supply, and social behaviour, etc.