ItalianTermiteMan
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2023
- Messages
- 146
Here we have some Macrotermes carbonarius termite major workers during an open-foraging expedition.
In this pic we can see a two-way and well-organized trail, with workers trasporting food back to their colony transiting at its centre (for maximum protection) and still empty-jawed workers going toward the food source running at their sides; while soldiers stand guard a bit further away at the trail's perimeters.
Though evolved to, well, work rather than specifically to fight like their soldiers, these M. carbonarius workers can still use their short but very robust mandibles (well visible in this pic in the specimens trasporting food) to deliver strong crushing bites to eventual attackers if the need arise, something not hard to see during an eventual agonistic confrontation as they are also much more aggressive than the workers of species your average European or north American is used to (Reticulitermes, Kalotermes, Cryptotermes, Coptotermes and the like).
Pic by Soh Kam Yung (Attribution-NonCommercial CC licence); Queenstown, Singapore.
In this pic we can see a two-way and well-organized trail, with workers trasporting food back to their colony transiting at its centre (for maximum protection) and still empty-jawed workers going toward the food source running at their sides; while soldiers stand guard a bit further away at the trail's perimeters.
Though evolved to, well, work rather than specifically to fight like their soldiers, these M. carbonarius workers can still use their short but very robust mandibles (well visible in this pic in the specimens trasporting food) to deliver strong crushing bites to eventual attackers if the need arise, something not hard to see during an eventual agonistic confrontation as they are also much more aggressive than the workers of species your average European or north American is used to (Reticulitermes, Kalotermes, Cryptotermes, Coptotermes and the like).
Pic by Soh Kam Yung (Attribution-NonCommercial CC licence); Queenstown, Singapore.
species! So neat the workers can defend also if the need arises.