It is often referred to as the "house termite" because it infests flooring, furniture, and structural wood work in buildings, but has never been found outdoors in natural habitats. These termites are generally associated to some extent with the ground. They may excavate and maintain passages through the soil and will construct shelter tubes to cross inhospitable territory such as concrete , to reach above ground food sources.
Generally subterranean termites must return to the soil for moisture, but occasionally when conditions are suitable, such as near a leak, they may remain and even reproduce aboveground. Subterranean termites prefer to only eat spring wood, leaving infested wood with a hollowed, layered or channeled appearance.
They do not eject pellets, powder, or other fragments for their feeding galleries like other termites. Colonies are not centralized but may have several nesting and foraging sites. Thus, a barrier treatment of pesticides used to keep termites from a building may have no effect on the rest of the colony outside the treatment zone. The Eastern Subterranean Termite Reticulitermes flavipes Kollar and Formosan Subterranean Termite Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki represent the two most economically important subterranean termite species in North America.
The eastern subterranean termite Reticulitermes flavipes Kollar is the most common and wide spread termite in North America. Swarms occur in the spring, but in heated buildings may occur even in winter. Colonies may consist of between 50, and 5 million individuals. Generally the eastern subterranean termite must maintain contact with the ground for moisture. They can be easily discovered by the presence of shelter tubes.
The Formosan subterranean termite Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki is native to mainland China, but has been spread throughout the world by human activity. Currently the Formosan subterranean termite is found across the southern U. Swarms tend to begin around sundown, can be very large, and congregate around streetlights or building lights. Phylum Arthropoda Subphylum Hexapoda Class Insecta Order Isoptera Common names: termites, white ants Overview Isoptera, or termites, are a small order of social eusocial insects closely related to cockroaches.
They are best-known for their eusocial colonies in which individuals of both sexes live together in large family groups and labour is divided among individuals that are morphological and behaviourally specialised castes as reproductives, and sterile soldiers and workers. Termites have relatively short antennae, mandibulate chewing mouthparts and two pairs of membranous wings of equal length. Wings are present in reproductive castes only and are shed after mating. The soldiers have greatly developed and modified heads that either contain large muscles to operate the pincer-like mandibles mandibulate soldiers or glandular tissue that sequesters a noxious fluid through a tube on the front of the head nasute soldiers Both workers and soldiers have reduced or no eyes.
Termites are cryptic insects that typically inhabit dark nests and tunnels and are rarely seen. However, their presence is often obvious because of the large, distinctive mounds they construct or the damage they cause to man-made wooden structures. Distribution and diversity Termites are found throughout Australia, although they are considerably less speciose in tropical rainforests of the continent.
Insect mouthparts come in different forms. The two most common forms are the chewing and piercing-sucking types moth and butterflies have a different, unique form of mouthparts. To determine what type of mouth an insect has, get a good hand lens 10 to 15x or a small microscope and a bright light. Look closely at the head of the insect. Two pairs of scissors-like jaws with a flap-like structure labium in front and one underneath labium indicates chewing mouthparts.
Piercing sucking mouthparts on a plant feeding bug. Why is this important? The nymphs of termites resemble adults. A colony of termites may consist of over a million individuals.
Feeding Termites feed on a wide variety of plant material, which may include wood, bark, leaves, grasses, fungi, humus or the droppings of herbivores. Some species forage on the surface at night collecting grasses which they take back to be stored in the nest. Others more commonly avoid all light and build protective tunnels to travel between the nest and their food source. Habitat Termites are found throughout Australia and are usually detected in natural habitats by their conspicuous earthen mounds, which may be as high as 3 or 4 metres in some areas depending on the species.
Some termites build smaller earthen nests in trees while others construct a complex network of subterranean tunnels connecting larger galleries. Wood dwelling species do not build nests but live within the galleries they have excavated in the wood they feed on.
Mastotermes darwiniensis the giant northern termite is a large endemic species which lives in nests in trees and logs.
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