Archives for termites

A rather strange species of nasute termite

Some of us may be familiar with the strange nesting habits of certain animals and invertebrates; termites are no exception. Recently, I came across what appears to be a rather strange species of termite which I have never encountered before. This species of termite is of a nasute variety, and looks to be subterranean in nesting habit.
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Pericapritermes

Pericapritermes is a genus of small termites in the Termitidae family. Originally there was just the genus Capritermes, but dozens of species are now recognized under Pericapritermes, distributed throughout the Orient, although originally they were once thought to be confined to the African continent. The soldiers are distinctive in having odd shaped, curved, and highly elongated mandibles with a very large head size relative to the body/abdomen size.
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What Is Onslaught?

What is Onslaught? Onslaught is a broad spectrum pesticide that contains the active ingredient esfenvalerate, also referred to as S-fenvalerate.  While this main ingredient has been used in other types of pest control products, Onslaught provides a unique formulation that offers much greater residual control against the target insect pest.  This formula is has no odor, so it can be sprayed both indoors and outdoors.
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Soldierless termites

There are termite species that do not have a soldier caste at all, and they are fairly well represented in tropical regions of the world, especially South America and Africa. These soldierless termites are so far only known from a couple of subfamilies in the large Termitidae family.
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The Termite Queen

The termite queen is one of the few creatures of the animal kingdom that demonstrate extreme physogastry or the expansion of the abdomen to an extreme size. This phenomenal growth is largely due to distended ovaries and fat deposits inside her abdomen. Some ant queens also display physogastry, but I can’t think of any creature that rivals the termite queen, in terms of size to body ratio.
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Termite pictures – Prorhinotermes flavus

Prorhinotermes is a genus of mostly tropical, subterranean termites. The greatest diversity exists in coastal areas of South East Asia, often in mangrove swamps. Prorhinotermes flavus is one of the few species of termites that can survive in waterlogged mangrove swamps, albeit nesting in damp, rotting wood and is confined to drier, deeper soil in the mangrove swamps.
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Termites of the Amazon rainforest – part 3

Some termite species of the Amazon build nests at ground level – termite mounds – for instance Neocapritermes braziliensis. This species has soldiers with large yellowish heads and bright black, asymmetric, snapping mandibles; it feeds on very rotten wood in contact with soil. Interestingly, it has been shown that a crocodilian species (Paleosuchus trigonatus) that lives in rainforest streams builds its nests on N. braziliensis mounds. Mounds, in turn, produce heat and help regulating crocodilian egg temperature and development[10].
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Termites of the Amazon rainforest – part 2

To quantity the termites of the Amazon rainforest is generally difficult, because of their discontinuous distribution, i.e. populations are structured in familial groups, the colonies. Besides, they remain hidden most of the time. Last but not least, termites are often difficult to identify by external morphological characters only. On the other hand, some species build conspicuous structures, which helps in both their detection in the field and in their identification.
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Termites of the Amazon rainforest – part 1

By: Pedro A. C. Lima Pequeno Graduate Program in Ecology, National Institute for Amazon Research, Manaus, Brazil The abundance of organisms varies in space and time. The triviality of such observation tells little about its causes, though, and some people have spent a lot of their time trying to understand this and related questions: Why do some places in the world have so many different kinds of organisms, while other ones are seemingly lifeless? How do organisms affect the environment they live in, and how are they affected in turn? The list goes on, but why would anybody care about
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How mound building termites repair damage to their nest

Mound building termites are probably the most advanced architects in the animal kingdom. The main family of termites that build large and advanced mounds are the Macrotermitinae. Although better known from Africa, mound building Macrotermes species are also well distributed throughout tropical Asia as well.
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