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Termites are detritivores, consuming dead plants in any degree of decomposition. They also play a vital role in the ecosystem by recycling waste material like dead timber, faeces and plants.8182 Many species consume cellulose, having a specialised midgut that breaks down the fiber.83 Termites are considered to be a significant source (11%) of atmospheric methane, one of the prime greenhouse gases, generated in the breakdown of cellulose.84 Termites rely primarily upon symbiotic protozoa (metamonads) and other microbes such as flagellate protists in their guts to digest the cellulose to them, allowing them to absorb the end products to their own use.8586 Gut protozoa, such as Trichonympha, in turn, rely on symbiotic bacteria embedded on their surfaces to create some of the necessary digestive enzymes.
Certain species such as Gnathamitermes tubiformans have seasonal food habits. By way of instance, 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 perform during autumn when their feeding activity is high.91.
Various forests 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 that were generally rejected from the termite colony.
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Some species of termite practice fungiculture. They maintain that a"garden" of specialised fungi of genus Termitomyces, which are nourished by the excrement of these insects. When the fungi are web link eaten, their spores pass undamaged through the intestines of the termites to finish the cycle by germinating in the new faecal pellets.9394 Molecular evidence suggests that the family Macrotermitinae developed agriculture roughly 31 million years back.
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 placed into two groups: the lower termites and higher termites. The reduced termites predominately feed on wood. As wood isn't easy to digest, termites prefer to consume fungus-infected wood since it's a lot easier to digest and the fungi are high in protein. Meanwhile, the bigger termites consume a wide variety of substances, including faeces, humus, bud, leaves and roots.96 The gut in the lower termites contains many species of bacteria along with protozoa, whereas the higher termites only have a few species of bacteria with no protozoa.97.
Termites are consumed by a wide variety of predators. One termite species alone, Hodotermes mossambicus, has been found in the gut contents of 65 birds and 19 mammals.98 Arthropods such as 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 lions in the household Ammoxenidae being professional termite predators.104106 click to read 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 primarily feeds on termites; it locates 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 resources to"fish" termites from their nest.
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Among all predators, ants are 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 a few hours.113114 Paltothyreus tarsatus is another termite-raiding species, with every individual stacking as many termites as possible in its mandibles before returning home, all the while recruiting additional nestmates into the raiding site through chemical trails.99 The Malaysian basicerotine ants Eurhopalothrix heliscata utilizes a different approach of termite hunting by pressing themselves into tight spaces, since they hunt through rotting wood housing termite colonies.
