sabi sabi wild facts: termites
1. Insects, including termites, are the most successful group of living creatures in the world today. Termites are the only insect order in which all species are highly social. They have been on Earth for over 50 million years, and although they are sometimes called "white ants", they are not ants, nor are they closely related to them..
2. In a termite colony there is a caste family structure: the workers - blind, sexless nymphs: the soldiers - with large heads and long jaws: and the reproductives including the queen.
3. The termite queen is the largest of all individual social insects. She produces one egg approximately every 3 seconds.
4. Just before the rainy season, some of the worker termites complete their development and become winged adults. These leave the nest in swarms and eventually land on the ground, shed their wings and mate, and create new colonies.
5. Termites are probably the most efficient creatures contributing to decomposition in the bushveld. They are also an important food source in Africa.
6. The termite species Macrotermes are the builders of nearly all the large termite mounds in Africa. There are many wonderful examples of these termitaria at Sabi Sabi. Macrotermes termites are fungus-growers, bringing plant material back to the colony, chewing it to a pulp and using it to cultivate the fungus on which they feed.
