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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 such as dead timber, faeces and plants.8182 Many species eat cellulose, having a specialised midgut that divides down the fibre.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 microbes 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 own decks to create some of the necessary digestive enzymes.
Certain species such as Gnathamitermes tubiformans have seasonal food habits. For 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 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 which were generally rejected by the termite colony.
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Some varieties of termite practice fungiculture. They maintain 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 the termites to finish the cycle by germinating in the fresh faecal pellets.9394 Molecular evidence suggests that the family Macrotermitinae developed agriculture about 31 million years 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 placed into two groups: the lower termites and higher termites. The lower vases predominately feed on wood. As wood isn't easy to click here now digest, termites prefer to consume fungus-infected timber because it is easier to digest and the fungi are high in protein. Meanwhile, the bigger termites consume a wide variety of materials, including faeces, humus, bud, leaves and roots.96 The gut in the lower weeds 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 wide variety of predators. One termite species alone, Hodotermes mossambicus, has been found in the stomach 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 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 own foods by sound and also by detecting the scent secreted by 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, whereas chimpanzees have developed resources to"fish" termites in 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. By way of example, Megaponera is a strictly termite-eating (termitophagous) genus that execute raiding activities, some lasting a few hours.113114 Paltothyreus tarsatus is another termite-raiding species, together with every individual stacking as many termites as possible in its mandibles before returning home, all of the while recruiting additional nestmates to 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, as they hunt through rotting wood housing termite colonies.
