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Termites are detritivores, consuming dead plants at any degree of decomposition. They also play a very important role in the ecosystem by recycling waste material such as dead timber, faeces and plants.8182 Many species eat cellulose, having a specialised midgut that divides down the fiber.83 Termites are considered to be a significant source (11%) of atmospheric methane, one of the prime greenhouse gases, generated in the breakdown of cellulose.84 Termites rely primarily upon symbiotic protozoa (metamonads) and other germs like flagellate protists in their bowels to digest the cellulose for them, allowing them to absorb the end products for their own use.8586 Gut protozoa, for example Trichonympha, in turn, rely on symbiotic bacteria embedded on their own decks to produce a number of the necessary intestinal enzymes.
Certain species like Gnathamitermes tubiformans have seasonal food customs. By way of instance, they might preferentially consume Red three-awn (Aristida longiseta) during the summertime, Buffalograss (Buchloe dactyloides) from May to August, and blue grama Bouteloua gracilis during spring, summer and autumn. Colonies of G. tubiformans consume less food in spring than they do during autumn when their feeding activity is high.91.
Various forests differ in their susceptibility to termite attack; the differences are attributed to these factors as moisture content, hardness, and resin and lignin content. In one study, the drywood termite Cryptotermes brevis strongly preferred poplar and maple forests to other forests which were generally rejected from the termite colony.
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Some varieties of termite practice fungiculture. They maintain a"garden" of specialised fungi of genus Termitomyces, which are nourished by the excrement of the insects. When the fungi are eaten, their spores pass undamaged through the intestines of the termites to complete the cycle by germinating in the new faecal pellets.9394 Molecular evidence suggests that the family Macrotermitinae developed agriculture about 31 million years ago.
Originally living in the rainforest, fungus farming enabled them to colonise the African savannah and other new environments, eventually expanding into Asia.95.
Depending on their feeding habits, termites are put into two groups: the lower termites and higher termites. The lower vases predominately feed on wood. As wood is difficult to digest, termites prefer to consume look at these guys fungus-infected timber since it's easier to digest and the fungi are high in protein. Meanwhile, the higher termites consume a wide variety of materials, including faeces, humus, grass, leaves and roots.96 The gut in the lower weeds contains many species of bacteria along with protozoa, while the greater termites only have a few species of bacteria with no protozoa.97.
Termites are consumed by a wide variety of predators. One termite species alone, Hodotermes mossambicus, was found in the gut contents of 65 creatures and 19 mammals.98 Arthropods like ants,99100 centipedes, cockroaches, crickets, dragonflies, scorpions and spiders,101 reptiles such as lizards,102 and amphibians such as frogs103 and toads consume termites, together with 2 spiders in the household Ammoxenidae being specialist termite predators.104106 Other predators include aardvarks, aardwolves, anteaters, bats, bears, bilbies, many birds, echidnas, foxes, galagos, numbats, mice and pangolins.104107108109 The aardwolf is an insectivorous mammal that primarily feeds on termites; it locates its food by sound and also by detecting the scent secreted from the soldiers; a single aardwolf is effective at consuming thousands of termites in a single night by using its long, sticky tongue.110111 Sloth bears break open mounds to consume the nestmates, while chimpanzees have developed resources to"fish" termites from their nest.
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Among all predators, ants are the best enemy to termites.99100 Some ant genera are specialist predators he said of termites. For instance, Megaponera is a strictly termite-eating (termitophagous) genus that perform raiding actions, some lasting several hours.113114 Paltothyreus tarsatus is another termite-raiding species, together with every individual stacking as many fleas as possible in its mandibles before returning home, all of the while recruiting additional nestmates to the raiding website through chemical paths.99 The Malaysian basicerotine ants Eurhopalothrix heliscata utilizes a different strategy of termite hunting by pressing themselves into tight spaces, as they hunt through rotting wood housing termite colonies.
