ItalianTermiteMan
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2023
- Messages
- 146
Sharing with you a nice pic of a major and minor soldier of a rather notorious fungus-growing termite from sub-saharian Africa, Macrotermes bellicosus!
While in all termites both male and females make up the sterile portion of a colony (with the exception of very few species where all-female colonies can be enstablished through facoltative asexual reproduction), in many genera castes and/or subcastes are sex-specific: in the case of Macrotermes (in which both workers and soldiers are bimorphic) major workers are exclusively male, but minor workers are all female and so are both minor and major soldiers. Here these two robust sisters armed with razor-sharp mandibles are standing upon one of their fungus combs, spongiform structures made of cellulosic materials mixed with salivary secretions and feces where symbiotic fungi of the genus Termitomyces are cultivated. Such combs are housed in the inner sections of their amazingly complex nests, whose above-ground part (the mound) can exceed 5 meters in height.
Pic by Dr. Jan Sobotnik (Termite Research Team); Massai Mara, Kenya.
Shared with consent.
While in all termites both male and females make up the sterile portion of a colony (with the exception of very few species where all-female colonies can be enstablished through facoltative asexual reproduction), in many genera castes and/or subcastes are sex-specific: in the case of Macrotermes (in which both workers and soldiers are bimorphic) major workers are exclusively male, but minor workers are all female and so are both minor and major soldiers. Here these two robust sisters armed with razor-sharp mandibles are standing upon one of their fungus combs, spongiform structures made of cellulosic materials mixed with salivary secretions and feces where symbiotic fungi of the genus Termitomyces are cultivated. Such combs are housed in the inner sections of their amazingly complex nests, whose above-ground part (the mound) can exceed 5 meters in height.
Pic by Dr. Jan Sobotnik (Termite Research Team); Massai Mara, Kenya.
Shared with consent.