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Termites are detritivores, consuming dead plants in any degree 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 divides down the fiber.83 Termites are considered to be a significant source (11%) of atmospheric methane, one of the prime greenhouse gases, generated from the breakdown of cellulose.84 Termites depend mainly upon symbiotic protozoa (metamonads) and other microbes such as flagellate protists in their guts to digest the cellulose for them, allowing them to absorb the end products to their own use.8586 Gut protozoa, such as 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 habits. For 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 perform during autumn when their feeding activity is high.91.
Numerous forests differ in their susceptibility to termite attack; the differences are attributed to these factors as moisture content, hardness, and resin and lignin content. In one study, the drywood termite Cryptotermes brevis strongly preferred poplar and walnut woods to other woods that were generally rejected by the termite colony.
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Some varieties of termite practice fungiculture. They maintain that 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 roughly 31 million decades 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 placed into two classes: the lower termites and higher termites. The reduced termites predominately feed on timber. As wood isn't easy to digest, termites prefer to consume fungus-infected wood because it is easier to digest and the fungi are high in protein. Meanwhile, the higher termites consume a vast array of materials, including faeces, humus, bud, leaves and roots.96 The gut in the lower termites contains many species of bacteria along with protozoa, Read Full Article 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, was found in the gut contents of 65 creatures and 19 mammals.98 Arthropods such as ants,99100 centipedes, cockroaches, crickets, dragonflies, scorpions and spiders,101 reptiles like lizards,102 and amphibians like frogs103 and toads consume termites, 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 finds its own food by sound and also by detecting the scent secreted from the soldiers; a single aardwolf is capable of 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 are the greatest enemy to termites.99100 Some ant genera are specialist predators of termites. For example, Megaponera is a rigorously termite-eating (termitophagous) genus that execute raiding actions, some lasting a few hours.113114 Paltothyreus tarsatus is another termite-raiding species, 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 website through chemical paths.99 The Malaysian basicerotine ants Eurhopalothrix heliscata utilizes a different approach of termite hunting by pressing themselves into tight spaces, as they hunt through rotting wood housing termite colonies.
