One of my favorite features of the Lowveld landscape are termite mounds. Now at this point this blog could go in a number of directions. I could talk about any number of fascinating termite mound-related topics; from them providing high ground viewing and safety points to various predators (hence why it’s always worth scanning for anything perched atop a termite mound) and how they are used as an incubator for monitor lizard eggs, to how they posthumously provide shelter to a plethora of different species such as mongooses, porcupines, warthogs…the list goes on.
Cheetahs are notorious for gaining the high ground for a better view.
But instead, I’d like to share an idea with you, a kind of thought experiment based on these weird structures. A few years ago I was introduced to a really thought-provoking book written by a South African naturalist and would-be scientist, Eugene Marais, called “Soul of the White Ant.” I found it to be a fairly easy but absolutely captivating read and I would definitely encourage anybody to give it a try.
In summary Marais encourages us to look at the termitary (termite mound) as an entire organism, a fully functioning animal in and of itself. Now I do understand that a termite mound is made up of millions of saliva-cemented sand grains rather than living cells, and so that theory falls flat but try and bear with me here.
Imagine the queen as a brain. She lies there, a thumb-sized monstrosity in comparison to any other termite caste. She is unable to move unless shifted slightly by the workers, as she gathers in millions of bytes of information fed to her by her worker termites or what could be considered as red blood cells in this analogy. The workers are feeding the colony and in turn they are constantly gathering intel from all over the “body”. This information could be about the health of fungus gardens, illness or disease in the colony, mass soldier deaths as a result of a Matabele ant raid, and much more. The queen uses this information and course-corrects accordingly, producing a different concoction of hormones and olfactory chemical cues which affect the worker termite behaviour and in turn, the entire colony.
Massive and unable to move, the queen is fed and groomed by the workers. Credit: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/being-queen/
The reproductive system is made up of the alates, the only termites equipped with sexual organs. These winged termites will crawl about the colony for years if need be, waiting for adequate rainfall. Finally with moisture as their cue, they charge for the surface where the workers have breached an opening into the outside world for them to escape. En masse the swarm takes to the skies in what, for most of them, turns out to be an effort in futility as they are predated upon by almost everything. These predators include various birds and mammals taking advantage of the glut of fats, oils, and nutrients pouring from the ground. But for the lucky few that make it, the female touches down and waits for a male to find her through pheromone trails released from her abdomen. The two dig down into the rain-softened earth where they will attempt to defy the odds and form a new successful termitary. One in which the female will become the new queen and the male, the king, whose sole function is to mate constantly with the queen. In time she will produce thousands upon thousands of eggs.
An alate emergence can be a spectacular event. Credit: https://www.callnorthwest.com/2018/03/swarm-insects-termites-flying-ants/
The soldier termites are the “white blood cells”, protecting the body from invasion and infection with their large mandibles. They’ll gather around any wound in the termitary, caused by an invading aardvark perhaps, and viciously defend that opening until the workers can seal it off.
Next, we have a fully functioning and complex digestive system. Worker termites gather cellulosic material such as dry grass and wood from as far away as 50m from the termitary. Lacking the gut bacteria to break the cellulose into simple sugars, they have teamed up with a fungus to accomplish the task. They take the ingested material back to the fungus gardens, a dedicated chamber deep in the heart of the body. They carefully excrete this masticated matter into high-surface-area, low volume structures that will slowly be enveloped and broken down by the fungus. The worker termites then ingest the fungus which contains the simple sugars they need and distributes them amongst the other living “cells” of the “body”. These other “cells” are the soldiers, alates, and queen, just as the red blood cells would travel in our body.
A worker termite harvests the fungus which feeds the colony. Credit: https://www.termiteweb.com/termite-pictures-microtermes-pakistanicus/
The workers are also responsible for the growth of the termitary. Grain by grain these tireless creatures build their home, gluing each piece into place with their sticky saliva. The grains are collected as the workers tunnel far and wide in search of food and deep into the bowels of the Earth in search of water.
So, let’s take it back to biology class at school; what are the 7 characteristics of life?
- Movement: it’s a tough one but my take on it is that in as much as trees “move”, so to is a termitary is in a constant state of flux.
- Respiration: the entire termitary acts primarily as a chimney to vent off the massive build-up of metabolic heat but also as a massive lung to “inhale” fresh air as stale CO2-laden air is vented out along with the heat.
- Sensitivity: termite mounds “respond” to break-ins, with the inhabitants swarming to defend and rebuild, the wounds sealing them off, and the mound growing over them.
- Growth: the mound grows constantly, reaching massive heights over what can amount to thousands of years.
- Reproduction: termite mounds have adopted a “spray and pray” strategy whereby the thousands or possibly hundreds of thousands of termites erupt out of a mound only for a near irrelevant number of termites successfully pairing up and starting a new colony
- Excretion: a lot of the excreta is incorporated into the walls of a mound.
- Nutrition: as per above, the complex digestive system of termites is fascinating in itself.
I know the analogy has more than a few holes but as I said at the start, it’s more of a thought experiment, a way of looking at something a little differently. The fact is one termite is nothing but a few million termites all working in unison creating something so much greater than the sum of its parts.
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interesting, but I have to say a bit creepy. one year we were in Botswana on our way to Londolozi and the second day we were there the inhabitants of the mounds were evacuating and flying all all over. They were the prey of every flying animal and our guide told us that his grandmother used to catch them, fry them and eat them, He said they are a source if protein! Thank you for filling the blanks of the lives of termites. Victoria
We heard the same thing. A frying pan with a little oil and garlic and they become a delicacy, or so we have been told.
Hi Victoria, Bob and Lucie. Indeed they can be fried and have a delicious buttery taste! I wouldn’t say it’s my go-to dish but I’m definitely not averse to a fried termite or two!
Hi, termites and all social insects in general are a great topic of debate upon their intelligence and social habits. They were disregarded because they are such small animals but now from bees onwards they are found to have lots of neurons and neuronal connections. Very interesting! I also loved the pictures of cheetah and leopards. For the insects “haters ” think that they allow these majestic predators a way to check the environment and to rest… also as you said an excellent source of food. Thanks for the article!
Hi Francesca, I definitely agree. It’s all about a holistic rather than reductionist approach. Looking at these masses of insects as an organism entire rather than each insect as an individual. I’m glad you enjoyed!
Kyle, what a fascinating, though somewhat chilling description of a termite mound. I won’t ever look at one the same way again. The mounds remind me of Adobe structures as found in various places in the world, before they’re covered in vegetation. I remember a dinner one evening, sitting outside, when suddenly this blanket-like flurry of silvery flying creatures, attracted by the light, joined us for a brief time until we gave up to go inside. It occurred just after a mighty rainfall in the Okavango Delta. Thanks for this unique view of the how and whys of the termite mound.
I haven’t looked at them the same way since reading The Soul of the White Ant. It’s such an interesting take on these little creatures!
What an interesting article about the secret life of termites. Thanks! They are amazing creatures, indeed.
This is not a stretch. Some of us see the whole planet – Gaia – as one living organism. Even we humans can each be a unique soul and being, and simultaneously an interconnected part of the Universal Soul and Gaia. Lovely piece.
I agree 100%, Linda. I found so many parallels to this idea in The Gaia Hypothesis by James Lovelock too!
Kyle, more facts than I have ever heard about termite mounds. We will never quite view them the same, but how can you know if a mound is still active or not? It’s obvious if another species is inhabiting it but otherwise what are the clues to its current condition?
Hi Bob and Lucie. it’s an interesting question and actually not the easiest to answer. One way to tell is by looking for signs of fresh construction in the from of a different and more dark coloured area. Another is to hold your hand over an open chimney hole (check for snakes first) and feel if heat is rising out; that is strong indicator of the mound being active. Grass will grow around and partially up the side of active mounds but once the mound is entirely engulfed in vegetation, I usually find these are abandoned. I hope that helps!
Kyle very interesting and they all work so hard in unity, something like a workaholic. It is only the queen that does nothing, everything gets done for her. But the termite mounds make good places for different animals to see over the horizon. Once they stand on the mount they can see very far for predators or for something to kill, or just to lean on while resting.
Kyle, loved leopards🤗
In the past, I had always looked at termites as pests for homeowners, but after watching them in what they do for the environment by eating the dead leaves, dead wood, and dead branches. They also help the soil by enriching it with nutrients. Then mother nature has her birds and others come in to feast on them which helps in population control. I’ve learn to co-exist.
I’m glad you have, Linda! They are a keystone species out here and without them the entire ecosystem would be knocked out of balance and we’d all be up to our eyeballs in wood and grass.
Kyle, Thanks for the interesting and educational read! Obviously we have seen thousands of termite mounds over the years on our visits to Londolozi. Some of them seem like they are not active and are used by other animals for dens and hiding places. Why do some of the mounds seem to be abandoned?
HI Michael and Terri. Some mounds die naturally as the queen dies without having a replacement queen to take over and sometimes the queen is killed by an overly enthusiastic aardvark. At that point the entire colony will die off or migrate to a neighbouring mound where they are “adopted” by the neighbouring queen. That’s when the warthogs, wild dogs, snakes, lizards, mongooses and all sorts of animals will take over.
Good day, Kyle,
Yes, Eugene Marais was a most interesting and thorough scientist / psychologist / author and poet. His other book “The Soul Of The Ape” was plagiarised in England and the false author received the Nobel prize for scientific literature for it. It is also a must read. Marais was a nephew of my mother’s father. But back to termites:
They are far more complex and worthy and rewarding to study in greater depth than mere visual observation. Had there been no termites we would have had no trees and grass.
Lewis Thomas in his fantastic little work “The Lives Of A Cell” (he is a cancer research micro-biologist) describes the digestive tract of the termite. In it lives what was thought to be a single cell organism called Mixotricha paradoxa, which assists the termite to break down indigestable nibbles of wood (cellulose) into a digestable carbohydrate and lignin – the excreta of termites. These in itself is worthy of study as each one particle is of the precise geometric shape to allow building of the domes and arches in the termite mound. Mixotricha paradoxa dashes off to each particle of cellulose, dwells a moment and then dashes off to another one. Then large magnification showed it has sets of tiny “flagelae” (paddles like what seals have), called spirocettes to propel it. Then one day a researcher viewed these spirocettes under an electron scanning microscope and nearly fell off his chair – they are individual live cells that bite in unison onto the sides of the body of Mixotricha paradoxa and THEY are the collective brain that take him to the food. Or so it was thought. At even larger magnification it was seen that that where these spirocettes bite onto the skin of Mixotricha tiny folds happen in the skin. When a piece of cellulose is reached, tiny, tiny little creatures come out of these microfolds and THEY work over the snippets of food. These are called “organellae” and THEY are the collective brain of the spirocettes and of Mixotricha paradoxa.
Organellae that are alive and well and millions and millions of years old have been found in the frozen tundra of Siberia, and for millions of years have not eaten anything.
It also seems they are present in the cells of that faculty of the human brain that has to do with decision making. THEY- it seems – are the life that has been around eternally. It seems to be their influence which guides the decisions and actions of the psychopath versus a “normal” brain – to name but one example of the true life around the “soul of the white ant”.
There is much more of course. There appears to be good reason why it was advised to “Look at an ant, you lazy fool; watch it closely…”
Regards.
Hi Dries, I will definitely give “Soul of the Ape” a read. I’ve also been meaning two read “My Friends the Baboons” too! That description of the Mixotrichia paradox is fascinating; it’s almost fractal-esque. If you keep looking deeper, you will find even more complex layers of inter-connectiveness between “separate” organisms that form something vastly more complex that is so much greater than the sum of its parts.
I’m going to look deeper into he organelle and their role in the decision making of the brain, that’s definitely aroused my curiosity.
Thanks so much for this, Dries; you’ve set me on an interesting path here.
Thank you so much for a MOST interesting article and with the pics. So very interesting. I was also most interested to read the very well written and interesting comment by Dries Marais and his comment from the Bible in Proverbs 6 : 6 “Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise ….” We have an incredible beyond Genius of a God and Creator with an intelligence we little Earthlings cannot begin to understand. How could Globerina Ooze dream up anything at all – never mind the genius in the life and work of the Termites or Ants? And the Artistry in Nature is just mind bogglingly Beautiful! Just my thoughts. Wendy M
Super fascinating Kyle!! Thanks for the deep dive, and who cares about the perfection of your analogy, it worked perfectly in your blog!!