Termites: The Inner Sanctum Page #2

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for a new colony,

they have to emerge into the open air,

usually at night.

It's the riskiest moment of their lives.

Farmers like the highly productive

moist soil around the mounds.

Whatever helps them grow

food here is welcome.

8,500 kilometers away,

on the island of Borneo,

the climate looks made for termites.

The rain forest is

constantly humid, warm,

and well-shaded.

This is probably the sort of habitat

where termites originated.

These species have it made.

No need to stay underground

out of the heat,

or dig deep for water.

For their nests,

they have hollow tree trunks.

Unlike their drywood

termite cousins in America,

these termites don't eat

the timber they live in,

so they have to launch

food-gathering forays

every ten days.

Scouts have identified a harvesting site

and mapped out an ideal route

through the congested landscape.

A gland on the scout's abdomen

lays a pheromone track

for the others to follow.

Their dark chitin shell allows them

some exposure to sunlight.

This is where the harvesters go to work,

a patch of lichen clinging to a tree,

up to 100 meters from the nest.

That's 15 kilometers on a human scale.

These harvesters,

young worker termites with

their small, sharp jaws,

won't eat anything out here.

They'll scratch, graze,

and gather all they can

at a frantic pace,

because the entire army

is operating to a schedule.

In less than 30 minutes,

this trunk is scraped clean.

Time to hand over to the transporters,

a division of labor established

a hundred million years ago.

This one will wait until

he has his full load,

and then he's off.

The harvesters and

transportation workers

suddenly know it's time

to be getting back,

unless they get side-tracked.

The crinkly white paste

on the pitcher plant's rim

is termite caviar,

enough to distract them

from an entire lichen tree.

But the rim and the

inside of the pitcher

are super slippery.

A single plant with several pitchers

can fill up with thousands of termites,

that it slowly digests.

The termites bring home half a kilo

of raw plant material

to feed a million termites

for about ten days.

Perfect organization

without any organizer.

But being out in the open is risky,

and the biggest risk is dehydration.

That means sunny spots must be crossed

as fast as possible.

Gaps in the canopy are a problem.

Logging is a disaster.

Termites have softer

exoskeletons than ants.

Keep 'em in the sun too long,

and they boil.

When the sun comes out,

they huddle in the shadows,

or they put on a burst of

speed to get home fast.

These termites prefer to exit

in the morning or afternoon,

when the sun is warming up

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