Termites on the march: Macrotermes sp.

[ItalianTermiteMan]

Here we have a few nice pics (all by Inaturalist user Simohaya, here shared under Attribution-NonCommercial CC licence) of a foraging column of Macrotermes fungus-growing termites from Xishuangbanna, a prefecture in southern China. These termites are out to collect leaf litter, woody detritus and similar plant matter to carry back to their nest and "feed" to their symbiotic Termitomyces fungus.



A major (right) and a minor (left) soldier stand guard at the side of the foraging column. While the formers are more robust and sport an extremely powerful cutting bite,
the latters are weaker (even "pound-for-pound") and more fragile but very agile, cheaper to produce and mantain and far more numerous. Beside a pair of slashing
type mandibles, both also employ a defensive fluid most likely produced in the labial glands.



In this pic, shot slightly above the previous one, you can mostly see workers at, well, work. Note how there are major and minors among them aswell, with the former
being much more common in foraging parties and doing the bulk of heavy contruction, while the small-headed latters (of which you can see only one here, on the far
right) stay much more inside the nest and primarily care for other dependant castes (brood, soldiers and the royals) and the fungus combs.



Another look at our marching termites. Soldiers are not only found on the column's edges, but also stream among it both for patrolling and to take new guarding
positions as it moves or simply if necessary.

Link to Simohaya's INat page: https://www.inaturalist.org/people/simohaya

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

So Interesting!!! So neat how the tend to fungus. Those soldiers got big mandibles too.

 

[viper69]

They have 2 types of soldiers? I didn’t know termites had that

 

[ItalianTermiteMan]

They have 2 types of soldiers? I didn’t know termites had that

Many termite species have bimorphic soldiers (of two types, usually morphologically and even behaviourally very different from each others), and some genera (like Acanthotermes, Diversitermes and some species of Velocitermes) have trimorphic ones. Then, there are many species in which soldiers can vary quite a bit in size and to a lesser degree morphology among the same colony without necessarely forming a minor/major subcaste of the soldier caste, tough the division between "true" subcastes and simple variation in size and a bit of morphology whitin a caste (be it soldiers or workers) is still not completely clear to me (i'll encounter one of the world's greates termitologist in the next months, i'll surely ask about this topic). Some even apparently have both "true" soldier subcastes and minor variation within said subcastes, for example the sand termite (Psammotermes hybostoma) have distinct minor, median and major soldiers but you can find some size and morphological variations whiting each of these subcastes, leading to one study identifying at least 11 different "possible" soldiers, with each still falling within minors, median or major form. As you see, it's a complicate matter of which i myself seek to better my knowledge.

 

[viper69]

Many termite species have bimorphic soldiers (of two types, usually morphologically and even behaviourally very different from each others), and some genera (like Acanthotermes, Diversitermes and some species of Velocitermes) have trimorphic ones. Then, there are many species in which soldiers can vary quite a bit in size and to a lesser degree morphology among the same colony without necessarely forming a minor/major subcaste of the soldier caste, tough the division between "true" subcastes and simple variation in size and a bit of morphology whitin a caste (be it soldiers or workers) is still not completely clear to me (i'll encounter one of the world's greates termitologist in the next months, i'll surely ask about this topic). Some even apparently have both "true" soldier subcastes and minor variation within said subcastes, for example the sand termite (Psammotermes hybostoma) have distinct minor, median and major soldiers but you can find some size and morphological variations whiting each of these subcastes, leading to one study identifying at least 11 different "possible" soldiers, with each still falling within minors, median or major form. As you see, it's a complicate matter of which i myself seek to better my knowledge.

Wow!