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Termites are detritivores, consuming dead plants in any degree of decomposition. They also play a very important role in the ecosystem by recycling waste material like dead timber, 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%) of atmospheric methane, one of the prime greenhouse gases, produced 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, such as Trichonympha, in turn, rely on symbiotic bacteria embedded on their surfaces to produce a number of the necessary intestinal enzymes.
Certain species such as Gnathamitermes tubiformans have seasonal food habits. By way of example, 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.
Various forests 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 forests that 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 these insects. When the fungi are eaten, their spores pass undamaged through the intestines of the termites to finish the cycle by germinating in the fresh faecal pellets.9394 Molecular evidence suggests that the household Macrotermitinae developed agriculture about 31 million decades back.
Originally living in the rainforest, fungus farming allowed 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: additional hints the lower termites and higher termites. The reduced vases predominately feed on wood. As wood is difficult to digest, termites want to consume fungus-infected timber since it's easier to digest and the fungi are high in protein. Meanwhile, the bigger termites consume a vast array 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 vast array of predators. One termite species alone, Hodotermes mossambicus, was found in the gut 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, 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 finds its own food by sound and also by detecting the scent secreted termite control in adelaide 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 developed resources to"fish" termites from their nest.
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Among all predators, ants will be the best enemy to termites.99100 Some ant genera are specialist predators of termites. For instance, Megaponera is a rigorously visit this website termite-eating (termitophagous) genus that execute raiding activities, some lasting several hours.113114 Paltothyreus tarsatus is another termite-raiding species, with every individual stacking as many termites as possible in its mandibles prior to returning home, all the while recruiting additional nestmates into the raiding site through chemical paths.99 The Malaysian basicerotine ants Eurhopalothrix heliscata utilizes a different approach of termite hunting by pressing themselves into tight spaces, as they hunt through rotting wood housing termite colonies.
