How Do Termites Find Enough Food To Feed A Colony?
Since termites feed on dead plant matter, you would think that finding enough sustenance would be easy for them. After all, there is dead plant matter littering the ground in every direction we look. Some termites do not even require vegetation to be dead before munching away. This is why several termite species in areas of Africa and Asia are considered pests to crops. Although cellulose containing materials are plentiful in environments that are both natural and manmade, there are also a whole lot of individual termites existing on the planet today. Keeping every termite in a colony adequately fed is not always an easy task for foraging termites. Most termite colonies often contain several hundred thousand individual termites. Amazingly, Formosan subterranean termite colonies can contain millions of individual termites. This is why colonies need to be located in areas where foraging termites can access an abundant amount of dead plant life. This is not always easy, which makes special foraging protocols sometimes necessary. Termites are always able to locate food, but the process of foraging is not as straightforward as many people would assume. Surprisingly, when it comes to termite behavior, entomologists and other experts do not know exactly how termites locate food. Despite this lack of knowledge, termites are known for resorting to different foraging methods.
Termite colonies include a queen and a king. The queen is obviously responsible for producing more termites. If a queen dies, then several secondary reproductive termites will begin to reproduce in the queen’s place. A colony can contain hundreds of secondary reproductives, causing an increase in a colony’s population. When a colony’s population increases, it can become difficult for worker termites to locate an adequate amount of food in just one area. In response to this overpopulation, secondary reproductives can establish new nests elsewhere, thus expanding the colony’s foraging territory.
Researchers cannot easily determine how far termites will travel for food. Foraging termites belonging to smaller colonies may not travel any farther than a few yards away from their nest. Other colonies may contain termites that travel within an area as large as a football field when searching for food. Food availability is a major factor concerning a colony’s foraging range, but this is far from being the only factor. It has been theorized that when smaller related colonies establish nests in new areas, the foraging range becomes much greater. Subterranean termites also forage above ground, as people who have fallen victim to termite infestations well know. Above ground foraging requires the building of “exploratory mud tubes” so that foraging termites can protect themselves from other arthropod predators, most of which are ants. Only worker termites gather food for a colony, as soldiers possess mandibles that are too big for feeding. This is why workers are tasked with feeding soldiers.
Do you think that termite predators invade nests solely for the purpose of consuming the large-bodied queen, as they are more nutritious and much larger than soldiers and workers?
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