- Termite bodies are made up of protein, calcium, iron and amino acids, making them really nutritious treats. In fact, many tribes in Africa, India and China eat termites as part of their daily meal to get the nutrition their bodies need.
- Although the Queen is the leader of the mound, termites are one of the few eusocial (hierarchy-based) insects where Kings also play a role. Termite kings stay with their Queens for life, helping fertilize the eggs and raise young larvae.
- Termite Queen faeces is fed to larvae to help them grow. Different kinds of faeces have different chemicals in them. The type of chemical fed to larvae determine what type of termite they grow to be – worker, soldier, nurse or future Queen.
- Termite Queens can live up to 50 years and some Queens can produce up to 10 million eggs in their lifetime.
- Termites are very clean insects and despite living underground their entire lives, they groom themselves most diligently. In fact, one of the jobs of the worker termites is to keep the mound and its members clean.
Bonus
There are over 2700 species of termites in the world and if you weighed the world’s entire termite population together, they’d weigh 445 million tonnes. In comparison, the world’s entire human population weighs north of 350 million tonnes.
Video: How does a termite mound look from within?
-NISHA PRAKASH
Artfully Wild 