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Termites are detritivores, consuming dead plants in any level of decomposition. They also play a vital role in the ecosystem by recycling waste material like dead wood, faeces and plants.8182 Many species eat cellulose, having a specialised midgut that divides down the fiber.83 Termites are considered to be a major source (11%) of atmospheric methane, one of the prime greenhouse gases, generated from the breakdown of cellulose.84 Termites rely primarily upon symbiotic protozoa (metamonads) and other microbes such as flagellate protists in their guts to digest the cellulose to 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 create a number of the necessary intestinal enzymes.
Certain species such as Gnathamitermes tubiformans have seasonal food habits. By way of instance, they might preferentially consume Red three-awn (Aristida longiseta) during the summer, 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.
Numerous woods differ in their susceptibility to termite attack; the differences are attributed to such 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 woods which were generally rejected by the termite colony.
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Some species of termite practice fungiculture. They maintain a"garden" of specialised fungi of genus Termitomyces, that can be nourished from the excrement of these insects. When the fungi are eaten, their spores pass undamaged through the intestines of their termites to finish the cycle by germinating in the new faecal pellets.9394 Molecular evidence suggests that the household Macrotermitinae developed agriculture about 31 million decades back.
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 classes: the lower termites and higher termites. The reduced vases predominately feed on wood. As wood is difficult to digest, termites prefer to consume fungus-infected timber because it is easier to digest and the fungi are high in protein. Meanwhile, the higher termites consume a vast array of materials, including faeces, humus, bud, leaves and roots.96 The gut in the lower weeds contains many species of bacteria along with protozoa, whereas the higher 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 such as ants,99100 centipedes, cockroaches, crickets, dragonflies, scorpions article and spiders,101 reptiles like lizards,102 and amphibians such as frogs103 and toads consume termites, with 2 spiders in the family 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 mostly feeds on termites; it finds its food by sound and by detecting the scent secreted from the soldiers; a single aardwolf is capable of consuming thousands of termites in a single night by using its long, sticky tongue.110111 Sloth bears break open mounds to consume the i thought about this nestmates, while chimpanzees have grown tools to"fish" termites from their nest.
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Among most predators, ants will be the greatest enemy to termites.99100 Some ant genera are specialist predators of termites. By way of instance, Megaponera is a rigorously termite-eating (termitophagous) genus that execute raiding actions, some lasting several hours.113114 Paltothyreus tarsatus is another termite-raiding species, with each individual stacking as many fleas as possible in its mandibles prior to returning home, all of the while recruiting additional nestmates into the raiding site through chemical paths.99 The Malaysian basicerotine ants Eurhopalothrix heliscata uses a different strategy of termite hunting by pressing themselves into tight spaces, since they hunt through rotting wood housing termite colonies.
