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CUBITERMES FUNGIFABER (ISOPTERA, TERMITIDAE)
[edit]INTRODUCTION/ HISTORY
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The largest and most impressive animal-made land structures are those made by the termites. All termite species live in large groups called colonies. All colonies start out as one egg-laying female (Queen) and a male (King). The Queen’s eggs produce the workers required to feed her and build a mound. As the demand for more workers to build the mound increases, the Queen will lay more eggs. These mounds are made out of mud and can reach up to 6 metres high. This allows the mound to contain over 1 million colony members.
CLASSIFICATION - Cubitermes Fungifaber
[edit]Cellular organisms
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Eukaryota
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Fungi/Metazoa group
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Metazoa
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Eumetazoa
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Bilateria
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Coelomata
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Protostomia
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Panarthropoda
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Arthropoda
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Mandibulata
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Pancrustacea
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Hexapoda
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Insecta
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Dicondylia
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Pterygota
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Neoptera
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Orthopteroidea
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Dictyoptera
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Isoptera
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Termitidae
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Termitinae
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Cubitermes group
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Cubitermes Fungifaber
HABITAT/LOCATION/TERRAIN
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The Cubitermes Fungifaber are commonly found in the rainforests of the Côte d'Ivoire, Africa. The Cote d’Ivoire has a surface area of roughly 320,000 sq km. and terrain which is mostly flat with some undulating plains and mountains in the northwest. The Cote d’Ivoire has three seasons. These are warm and dry (November to March); hot and dry (March to May) and hot and wet (June to October). On average the climate is described as tropical along the coast and is characterized by low yearly rainfall and scrub vegetation. The inhabitants who live here are mostly found along the sandy coastal region. The forest region of the country is sparsely populated apart from the capital area.
FOOD
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The basis of the Cubitermes Fungifaber diet is cellulose. These termites find the cellulose in the leaf litter found in the area of their nest. This type of feeding gives them the class of Soil or Humus Feeders. The C. Fungifaber, like ants, lay chemical trails when they search for food. When the C. Fungifaber first leave the nest in search of food, they will go searching in random directions and at the same time, they will leave a chemical trail which they use to find their way back to the nest. The termites who find the shortest path to available food will return to the mound the quickest and so return to and from the food source far many more times than termites who have to travel further. This results in the ‘shortest chemical trail’ to be much stronger than any other chemical trail. This in turn will encourage the other termites to give up their chemical trails, resulting in the creation of the quickest path to the nearest available food source.
“Feeding relationships within the mature Cubitermes fungifaber colony were studied by Alibert (1963). She found that colony members were fed either saliva or regurgitated stomodeal food by the workers which had eaten radioactive (P32) humus, the type of food received depending on the castle and stage of development of the recipient. The queen was first to show radioactivity derived from salivary feeding by workers, and this feeding seemed to be continuous. Alates, close to swarming, and white soldiers also gave evidence of extensive salivary feedings. The youngest instars (nymphal) and the King received smaller amounts of saliva, while adult soldiers and some workers received regurgitated food. Alibert’s distinction between the two types of stomodeal food was based upon the time required for radioactivity to be exhibited by the various colony members. Regurgitated radioactive food could be detected early in the experiment, whereas radioactive salivary fluids did not appear until 25-30 hours after exposure of the nest to the radioactive food source. These “ latency times” were borne out by dissection of workers at varying times after exposure to the radioactive humus and measurement of their gut contents, hemolymph, and saliva.”(7)
The summary of this experiment is that only the worker termites feed directly on humus. Soldier termites, instars, the Royal Couple and alates (fully winged reproductives) receive stomodeal food directly from the workers.
Definition: Stomodeal food is food which is made from regurgitated food processed by the workers and mixed with saliva. The termites ask for this food from the workers by touching the head and antennae of the worker with their own antennae.
PREDATORS
[edit]The Cubitermes Fungifaber are prey to a great number of animals, in particular the arthropods (spiders, cockroaches, beetles and ants) and vertebrates (birds, mammals, reptiles and even humans). It is believed that the C. Fungifaber and other species of termites form the basic energy supply for the young of many birds in tropical Africa. Also it is believed that the C. Fungifaber and other species of termites are extremely important to the survival of the insect feeding birds of Europe who migrate to Africa in the winter during the swarming season.
LIFECYCLE
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The colony follows a marked seasonal cycle. The young wing-padded nymphs appear in October (beginning of the short rainy season), and develop into alates, the flight of which occurs in June or late May (beginning of the long rainy season). An adult (i.e. alate producing) colony contains between 6,000 and 25,000 workers. These colonies appear to be relatively short-living, five years at most.
A colony will replace the Queen, King or both of the Royal Couple should they die by a substitute reproductives, but if the reproductives die due to aging they are not replaced and the colony will die as a result of a gradual decline in egg production.
If the royal couple dies or a too large colony disperses, non-sexual workers transform into reproductive individuals.
COLONY /MEMBERS
[edit]The C. Fungifaber colony is made up of up to 1.5 million termites. The colony has the lifespan of five years, which is in fact the lifespan of the queen. These termites have been categorised into soldiers and workers and a royal couple whom gave birth to the colony.
Workers: The workers are blind and have a short life span. Their role is to build and maintain the mound and find and produce food for the rest of the colony. They also look after the Queen by feeding and cleaning her, and removing the eggs which she lays to the nurseries. These workers are also able to transform into soldiers when needed.
Image from Reference (1)
Soldiers: Are not able to feed themselves. They are completely dependant on the food given to them by the worker termites in the form of Stomodeal. Stomodeal is food which comes from regurgitated food processed by the workers and mixed with saliva. Termite soldiers are also blind. However this blindness does not prevent them from completing their job efficiently. They have highly developed olfactory sense and sensitivity for vibrations. Unlike the ants, termite soldiers are sterile individuals of both sexes. Inside the colony, individuals communicate using pheromones emitted by the tergal (back) glands.
Image from Reference (2)
Alates: The alates are winged reproductive males and females.
Image from Reference (10)
QUEEN AND KING
[edit]File:DSC00495.JPG File:DSC004999.JPG The outline of a large...(Click!)
Images from Reference (2)
As soon as the eggs are laid, pheromones emitted by the Queen and King are used to inhibit the reproduction ability of the larvae who will later turn into workers and soldiers. As well as being able to inhibit the sexualisation of the larvae, the royal couple are also able to control the emergence of sexually active individuals who in turn will go out and form new colonies.
The Queen’s abdomen wastes away due to her ovaries. She also will increase in size till she is thirty times larger than the workers who continuously surround her. Her body is mostly made up of an egg-filled belly. This belly can reach ~12cm in length. A Queen will lay up to 30 eggs/minute continuously. Her eggs are carried away the workers who look after and feed her to the nurseries. There they will hatch into larvae twenty days later and be tended to by the workers until they are fully grown. The Queen is only able to move extremely slowly because she is so large; she moves with abdominal contractions and with her feet. After a year she is a prisoner in her own chamber as she is far too big to squeeze through the corridors leading to her residue. This does not provide a problem to the Queen as she is so bloated with egg producing machinery that she can not move even if she wanted to.
The small king will continue to mate with the queen for life (unlike in ants, where it dies after just one copulation).
MOUND
[edit][http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=15934
Video by BBC David Attenborough about how a termite species’ mound’s special features operate to control the temperature of inside the mound.]
File:DSC00505.JPG File:DSC00503.JPG File:DSC00504.JPG File:Mound21.PNG
Images from Reference (2)
A General Description of a Mound Encountered by a Species of Termite.
The Perfect Mansion
A termite mound consists of many large chimney structures which tower high about the ground and several underground chambers. Unpredictably the chimneys are virtually empty; the worker termites are located near or under the ground inside the mound. The workers are continuously building arches, vaults and corridors. The workers work in complete unison together. Each of them will be continuously placing pellets of mud in a position which has been demanded by a unknown master plan. It is still unknown where this master plan comes from or who tells the termite workers what to do.
As well as continuously building the mound, some workers will have been assigned food jobs. All termites live on the substance cellulose. There are two main sources used to find cellulose in the termite species; one would be from the dead and decaying leaves or humus found around the nest and the second would be from dead wood. All of these cellulose sources are stored in the mound in special chambers. The termites who eat wood also cultivate gardens under the ground. This is due to the fact that the wood is hard for the termites to digest. The termites have found an ingenius way in which to extract most of its nutrients. Firstly they eat the wood and then they will cultivate a fungus in their dung which in turn extracts all of the remaining nutrients which had not been absorbed during the initial digestion. This fungus will vary slightly between termite mounds. The fungus is cultivated in special garden chambers on the dung and then eaten by the termites. It is found uniquely in termite mounds and will only grow where there is an optimum temperature. An average mound can hold up to 1.5 million insects in one colony.
All of these insects (and fungus if present) generate a lot of heat, endangering the colony to overheat and turn the air foul. This is a problem as the colony would die if the temperature varied by more than 2oc from 31oc. The termites have come up with an ingenious solution to this problem. This solution exists six feet below the surface in the form of a cellar. The cellar has a floor which is studded with tunnels stretching down ~ 12-14feet to the water table. These tunnels are used by the workers to gather moist mud to use for their continuous building. The ceiling of the cellar is strong enough to carry the entire weight of the colony. This is decorated on its underside by one of the most remarkable animal structures known to man. The ceiling is decorated by deep grooves running the full length of the ceiling. These grooves absorb the moisture from the colony. As the water evaporates from the grooves, salt is left behind. The water will also take with it any excess heat produced from the colony above. This process of water evaporation results in the cellar being the coolest part of the colony.
Air ventilation of the colony
The air heated by the colony (and gardens if present) rises to the top of the mound. The cool cellar draws the hot and stale air down the long pipes present right round the edge of the cellar. While this hot and stale air travels down the pipes to the cellar, there will be a seepage of gas through pores/dimples in the walls. O2 will travel into the pipes and CO2 will exit. Thos results into a mixture equivalent to fresh air.
Conclusion
These insects with their tiny brains have managed to build the perfect mansion in complete cooperation in dark. The have huge chimneys for air conditioning; Thick and strong walls for protection; deep dungeons for gathering fresh building materials; Store rooms for their food and in some species gardens for cultivating fungus to later on eat.
RELOCATION
[edit]Cubitermes fungifaber, a humus-feeding termite from the forest of the Ivory Coast, builds an earthen nest by successive additions. When the nest is experimentally damaged, the surviving colony frequently migrates some distance away, by a subterranean route, and builds a new nest. This relocation sometimes occurs without any noticeable previous disturbance.
RELATED SPECIES
[edit]Termites: the Social Cockroaches.
Even though the a termites' diet and behaviour is extremely simular to ants, they are not related to the ants as many people believe. In fact their closest relative is the cockroach. There is one species of termite which quite clearly shows the ancestorship of these two species.
Mastotermes Darwiniensis: a cockroach-like termite
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This Australian "giant termite" Mastotermes Darwiniensis is considered one of the most most primative species of termites. This Termite has many characteristics which are found in cockroaches but not in termites.
Cockroach-like characteristics of Mastotermes:
- large size (other termites are much smaller)
- expanded pronotum ("shield" on the first thoracic segment, reduced in other termites)
- hind wings with an expanded anal fan (absent in other termites)
- ovipositor present (absent in all other termites)
- eggs laid in oothecae (clusters in a membrane-enclosed capsule; other termites lay solitary eggs)
- feet with 5 tarsal segments (all other termites have 4)
- harbor endosymbiotic bacterium Blattabacterium, a genus found in cockroaches but not other termites
FUNNY AND INTERESTING STORIES OF HOW TERMITES CAN AFFECT US
[edit]- Eat-a-bug cookbook
This is a cook book which introduces the idea of eating and incorporating insects in various types of dishes. This cook book will teach you how to make a “Curried Termite Stew” and “Termite Treats” as well as many other insect recipes.
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- Termites eating money
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- Lost man surviving on termites
REFERENCES/SOURCES
[edit](1) Krishna K. and Weesner F.M.(1969)Biology of Termites,1969 New York, Academic Press
(2) The Hunterian Museum, Graham Kerr Building, The University of Glasgow
(3) http://www.uniprot.org/taxonomy/377897
(4) http://goafrica.about.com/library/bl.mapfacts.ivorycoast.htm
(5) http://www.wbtc.com/images/content/pagebuilder/14597.jpg
(6) Page R.(2008), 4a Lecture 5, University of Glasgow Moodle (online)
(7) Krishna K. and Weesner F.M.(1969: P399) Biology of Termites,1969 New York, Academic Press
(8) Ch. Noirot, C. Noirot-Timothie and S.H. Han (1986)'Migration and Nest Building in Cubitekmes Fungifaber (Isoptera, Termitidae)' Insectes Sociaux, Paris Volume 33, n ~ 4, pp. 361-374
(10) http://www.ento.csiro.au/education/insects/isoptera.html
(11) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Nature-039-s-Largest-and-Most-Sophisticated-Constructions-71161.shtml
(12) http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=15934
(13) http://darwinblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/transitional-species-in-insect_24.html
(14) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7334033.stm
(15) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7532781.stm