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Termite
Castes Termite nest consist of
different cast types. Below is a list of some of the different cast that can
be found in a termite nest. King and Queen These
two initiate the colony and produce hundreds to thousands of fertilized eggs
per day. The King and Queen establish
the colony and feed and care for the young until there are enough workers to
take over the nursery. The Queen is confined to her royal chamber and is
tended to and fed by the workers. She may become enlarged over time and can
become as big as 3 cm in length. She can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day and has
been known to live over 20 years. The older she gets the more her re
productive capacity declines. The colony will then select a supplementary
queen and kings. These queens do not produce as many eggs as the original
queen. Workers These
make up the majority of a termite colony or nest. Their job is to build and
repair the nest and gallery systems. They are also responsible for collecting
food (damaging timber) and feeding the other members of the colony. They are
blind, sterile and wingless. Soldiers This
caste is responsible for protecting the colony. Their defence mechanisms will
change depending on the species of the termites. Most consists of one of the
follow, biting, chemical attack by secreting toxic or repellent chemicals,
and physical barriers using their bodies. Alates These
are winged reproductive which are released from the colony at a particular
time of the year to fly off in order to find a mate and start a new colony.
They are usually released on a warm humid evening and can sometimes be
described as looking like smoke coming out of the ground. They have compound
eyes, are often large than the soldiers and workers and will grow through the
different stages until fully developed where they are winged. They may be
selected as supplementary kings and queens. Nymphs This
is the worker of primitive species. There is no true worker caste which means
the nymph moults until it reaches an advanced stage of growth. These advanced
stages can be feeding and moulting without differentiation into any
particular caste, moulting to a soldier, moulting to an alate (reproductive
termite). Termites in the other species have the workers, soldiers and
reproductive determined very early on in their nymphal development. |
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