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Termites are detritivores, consuming dead plants at any degree of decomposition. They also play a vital role in the ecosystem by recycling waste material like dead wood, faeces and plants.8182 Many species consume cellulose, having a specialised midgut that breaks down the fibre.83 Termites are considered to be a significant source (11 percent ) of atmospheric methane, one of the prime greenhouse gases, generated in the breakdown of cellulose.84 Termites depend mainly upon symbiotic protozoa (metamonads) and other germs 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 surfaces to create a number of the necessary digestive enzymes.
Certain species such as Gnathamitermes tubiformans have seasonal food habits. For example, 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.
Numerous 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 species of termite practice fungiculture. They maintain that a"garden" of specialised fungi of genus Termitomyces, which can be nourished by the excrement of the insects. When the fungi are eaten, their spores pass undamaged through the intestines of their termites to finish the cycle by germinating in the fresh faecal pellets.9394 Molecular evidence suggests that the household Macrotermitinae developed agriculture roughly 31 million years ago.
Originally living in the rainforest, fungus farming allowed them to colonise the African savannah and other new environments, eventually expanding into Asia.95.
Depending here on their feeding habits, termites are put into two classes: the lower termites and higher termites. The reduced termites predominately feed on wood. As wood is difficult to digest, termites prefer to consume fungus-infected wood since it's a lot easier to digest and the fungi are high in protein. Meanwhile, the higher termites consume a wide variety of materials, including faeces, humus, bud, leaves and roots.96 The gut in the lower termites contains many species of bacteria along with protozoa, while the higher termites only have a few species of bacteria with no protozoa.97.
Termites are consumed by a vast array of predators. One termite species alone, Hodotermes mossambicus, was found in the stomach contents of 65 birds and 19 mammals.98 Arthropods like ants,99100 centipedes, cockroaches, crickets, dragonflies, scorpions and spiders,101 reptiles such as lizards,102 and amphibians like frogs103 and toads consume termites, together with two lions 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 own 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 nestmates, whereas chimpanzees have grown resources to"fish" termites in their nest.
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Among most predators, ants will be the best 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 perform raiding activities, some lasting several hours.113114 Paltothyreus tarsatus Read More Here is another termite-raiding species, together click here for more info with each 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 trails.99 The Malaysian basicerotine ants Eurhopalothrix heliscata uses a different approach of termite hunting by pressing themselves into tight spaces, as they hunt through rotting wood housing termite colonies.
