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Termites are detritivores, consuming dead plants at any level 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 eat cellulose, having a specialised midgut that breaks down the fibre.83 Termites are considered to be a major source (11%) 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 bowels to digest the cellulose for them, allowing them to absorb the end products to 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 intestinal enzymes.
Certain species such as Gnathamitermes tubiformans have seasonal food customs. By way of example, they may 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 such factors as moisture content, hardness, and resin and lignin content. In one study, the drywood termite Cryptotermes brevis strongly preferred poplar and walnut forests to other forests which were generally rejected by the termite colony.
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Some species of termite practice fungiculture. They maintain that a"garden" of specialised fungi of genus Termitomyces, that are 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 family Macrotermitinae developed agriculture roughly 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 timber. As wood is difficult to digest, termites prefer to consume fungus-infected timber 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, grass, leaves and roots.96 The intestine in the lower termites 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 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 professional 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 locates its own foods by sound and by detecting the scent secreted by the soldiers; a single aardwolf is capable of consuming thousands of termites in a single night click here for more by using its long, sticky tongue.110111 Sloth bears break from this source open mounds to consume the nestmates, while chimpanzees have developed tools 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. For instance, Megaponera is a strictly termite-eating (termitophagous) genus that execute raiding activities, 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 site through chemical trails.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.
