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Termites are detritivores, consuming dead plants at any level of decomposition. They also play a very important 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 fibre.83 Termites are considered to be a significant source (11%) of atmospheric methane, one of the prime greenhouse gases, produced in the breakdown of cellulose.84 Termites rely primarily upon symbiotic protozoa (metamonads) and other germs like flagellate protists in their bowels 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 intestinal enzymes.
Certain species such as Gnathamitermes tubiformans have seasonal food customs. For instance, they might 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 do during autumn when their feeding activity is high.91.
Numerous woods 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 forests that were generally rejected from the termite colony.
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Some varieties of termite practice fungiculture. They maintain that a"garden" of specialised fungi of genus Termitomyces, which can be nourished from the excrement of these insects. When the fungi are eaten, their spores pass undamaged through the intestines of their termites to finish the cycle by germinating in the new faecal pellets.9394 Molecular evidence suggests that the household Macrotermitinae developed agriculture about 31 million years ago.
Originally living in the rainforest, fungus farming allowed 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 vases predominately feed on timber. As wood is difficult to digest, termites prefer to consume fungus-infected wood because it is easier to digest and the fungi are high in protein. Meanwhile, the higher termites consume a wide variety of substances, including faeces, humus, bud, leaves and roots.96 The intestine in the lower weeds 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, was found in the gut contents of 65 creatures and 19 mammals.98 Arthropods like ants,99100 centipedes, cockroaches, crickets, dragonflies, scorpions and spiders,101 reptiles like lizards,102 and amphibians such as frogs103 and toads consume termites, with two lions in the family Ammoxenidae being specialist termite predators.104106 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 by 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, whereas chimpanzees have developed resources to"fish" termites from their nest.
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Among all predators, ants will be the best enemy to termites.99100 Some ant genera are specialist predators of termites. For example, Megaponera is a rigorously termite-eating (termitophagous) genus that execute raiding activities, some lasting a site web few hours.113114 Paltothyreus tarsatus is another termite-raiding species, together with every individual stacking as many termites as possible in its mandibles before returning home, all the while recruiting additional nestmates to the raiding site through chemical paths.99 The Malaysian basicerotine ants Eurhopalothrix heliscata uses a different strategy of termite hunting by pressing themselves into tight spaces, since they hunt through rotting wood housing termite colonies.
