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Termites are detritivores, consuming dead plants at any level of decomposition. They also play a vital role in the ecosystem by recycling waste material like dead timber, faeces and plants.8182 Many species eat cellulose, having a specialised midgut that breaks down the fibre.83 Termites are considered to be a significant source (11 percent ) of atmospheric methane, one of the prime greenhouse gases, produced from the breakdown of cellulose.84 Termites rely primarily upon symbiotic protozoa (metamonads) and other microbes like flagellate protists in their bowels to digest the cellulose to them, allowing them to absorb the end products to their own use.8586 Gut protozoa, for example Trichonympha, in turn, rely on symbiotic bacteria embedded on their own decks to produce some of the necessary intestinal enzymes.
Certain species such as Gnathamitermes tubiformans have seasonal food customs. By way of 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 do during autumn when their feeding activity is high.91.
Various woods 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 maple forests to other woods which were generally rejected from the termite colony.
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Some species of termite practice fungiculture. They maintain a"garden" of specialised fungi of genus Termitomyces, that are nourished by the excrement of these insects. When the fungi are eaten, their spores pass undamaged through the intestines of the termites to complete the cycle by germinating in the new faecal pellets.9394 Molecular evidence suggests that the family Macrotermitinae developed agriculture about 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 put into two classes: the lower termites and higher termites. The reduced termites predominately feed on wood. As wood is difficult to digest, termites prefer to consume fungus-infected timber since it's a lot easier to digest and the fungi are high in protein. Meanwhile, the bigger termites consume a wide variety of materials, including faeces, humus, bud, leaves and roots.96 The intestine in the lower weeds contains many species of bacteria along with protozoa, while the higher termites only have a few species of bacteria with no protozoa.97.
Termites are consumed by a vast array of predators. One termite species alone, Hodotermes mossambicus, has been found in the stomach contents click resources of 65 birds and click this site 19 mammals.98 Arthropods like ants,99100 centipedes, cockroaches, crickets, dragonflies, scorpions and spiders,101 reptiles such as lizards,102 and amphibians such as frogs103 and toads consume termites, with 2 spiders in the family Ammoxenidae being specialist 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 foods by sound and also by detecting the scent secreted from the soldiers; a single aardwolf is effective at consuming thousands of termites in a single night by using its long, sticky tongue.110111 Sloth bears break open mounds to consume the nestmates, while chimpanzees have developed tools to"fish" termites from their nest.
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Among most predators, ants will be the greatest enemy to termites.99100 Some ant genera are specialist predators of termites. For instance, Megaponera is a rigorously termite-eating (termitophagous) genus that perform raiding activities, some lasting several hours.113114 Paltothyreus tarsatus is another termite-raiding species, with each individual stacking as many termites as possible in its mandibles prior to returning home, all of the while recruiting additional nestmates to the raiding site through chemical paths.99 The Malaysian basicerotine ants Eurhopalothrix heliscata uses a different strategy http://www.innovativepestcontrol.com.au/ of termite hunting by pressing themselves into tight spaces, as they hunt through rotting wood housing termite colonies.
