Termites: The Inner Sanctum Page #3

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is about to go forth and multiply.

The sexual caste is

already growing its wings.

In a few days, thousands

of them will emerge

into the light, meet, fly away,

and start new colonies.

Over in the tropical zones,

the biomass of termites,

their total weight, is immense.

And yet, to the casual visitor,

they can be almost invisible

in the forest floor's

kaleidoscope of browns.

This termite species have found a way

to even out the vastly

different surfaces

they have to cross to

reach a food source.

Where the gaps or height differences

between leaves and twigs

become too great,

they build roads,

bridges,

and tunnels,

with sand and earth gathered

from the forest floor,

another form of termite concrete.

The use it to construct a

direct route to the food,

saving time and energy.

It's a super highway

taking rush hour traffic

through the most difficult

and complex terrain.

Pheromone trails regulate the traffic

as smoothly as road

signs and traffic lights.

The tunnels are even designed

with one lane in each direction.

Soldiers line the entire route,

facing outwards,

sniffing for danger.

These are a big-bodied caste,

their heads converted

into chemical guns.

Their antennas scan the air.

The forest is full of risk.

Closer to home,

the engineered roads and tunnels

become still broader.

Nothing impedes their forward march.

Workers cutting up dried

leaves to take to the nest.

The detritus they leave behind rots away

and helps new plant growth

on the forest floor.

Cutting up dried leaves is hard work.

It takes two hours to

make a leaf disappear,

and this termite species

eats only leaves.

We're only just starting to understand

the termite's role in

the planet's ecosystems,

but it looks as though

they have a positive effect

on the lives of almost

all plants and animals.

So instead of focusing on extermination,

some researchers are beginning to think

we should be protecting termites

all over the world.

Through 150,000,000 years of evolution,

termite species have learned to process

any kind of vegetation,

dead or alive, into food.

That adaptability has

been their great strength.

And with their perfect social systems,

termites should effortlessly

dominate their environment.

But here, in the jungles of Borneo,

there is a predator.

Tucked up in the dry leaves,

it looks like a snake.

As it stretches out, you might

mistake it for an armadillo.

But the only thing it has

in common with armadillos

is that, like an armadillo,

it's not a reptile,

it's a mammal.

This is a pangolin.

The pangolin has long claws

to break into termites' nests,

where it uses its sticky tongue

to lap up the insects wholesale.

Today, the termites are lucky.

An ant colony is paying the

bill for the pangolin's dinner.

But termites don't just face

a threat from pangolins.

These soldiers are scanning

for a very different enemy

that they can't see, but may soon sense.

A platoon of weaver ants has

targeted the termite column.

Their scouts have chosen

the perfect ambush site.

An ant patrol inches

toward the termite highway.

The worker termites seem too busy

to notice the danger.

Some of the termite soldiers

have picked up the hostile scent,

but they may not leave

their sentry posts.

The ants spend time scouting out a gap

in the termites' defense line.

Finally, they opt for a head-on assault.

The termites are not defenseless.

The tiny termite gunner has aimed well.

It tries to wipe off

the acid spray in vain.

Termite soldiers launch

a counter-assault

and engage the enemy in a skirmish.

A few ants manage to retreat

with piece of termite

booty in their jaws,

but the tiny defenders

have stood their ground,

thanks to their chemical weapons.

Across the globe, in the savanna,

another ant army is on the move.

This time, it will be

more than a skirmish.

The advance is fast and focused,

led by a single scout.

They fan out from their nest

in three parallel columns,

each two meters long.

These ants are like bloodhounds,

hot on the scent.

They exist to hunt termites.

There's no escape.

These savanna termites

have no secret weapons.

Outnumbered like this, their size

and fearsome jaws are no advantage.

The ants drag termite

bodies back to their nest,

retracing the lines of their advance.

Biologist Jo Darlington has watched

plenty of these campaigns from above.

She never ceases to

wonder at two insect types

that can be so similar,

and yet so different.

Well, ants and termites, between them,

are the most successful

of all the land insects.

We think they're the

first social insects,

but the fossil record

is very incomplete.

But, although there are

a lot of parallelisms,

they're actually not related at all.

They're an example of

convergent evolution,

where different stocks have

solved the same problem

in parallel ways.

Jo continues her work to calculate

the biomass of the

termites in the savanna.

She maps out all the

mounds in a defined area.

I feel the sand, the edge?

You feel for the edge of the mound.

In this direction.

Around.

Here, here?

Hold it up.

GPS ready.

Two termite species

live side by side here.

One builds mounds.

The other lives completely underground.

But this species comes out at night.

They spread out over the savanna,

gathering vegetation,

dragging far more than their own weight.

The ground is dotted

with tiny access holes,

sealed by day, leading to the tunnels

the termites have dug around their nest.

They radiate up to 35

meters from the nest

in a dense network.

A single nest can have

six kilometers of tunnels.

Termites remove dead

grass and woody litter,

reducing the risk of catastrophic

fires in the dry season.

Back in the nest, the termites

will eat this plant detritus.

These termites are able

to break down cellulose

like their American cousins.

Other species eject the

chewed and wizened cellulose

as raw feces, which will later

be used to farm a fungus.

That's what the termites

in this mound do.

These Maasai women have never looked

inside a termites' mound before.

But Reinhard has installed a window

to observe a fungus garden.

These termites are working

on the fungus garden,

or comb.

Worker termites build up the

structure over several weeks,

with layer on layer of feces.

The fungus comb produces

white spores, called conidia.

The workers swallow these spores

and excrete them with more feces,

further enriching the fungus.

This is the main source of food

for all the termites in the mound.

Thus, the fungus

guarantees the existence

of an entire termite species,

and it all depends on the

temperature and the humidity

being exactly right.

For these Maasai women, a

fascinating first glimpse

of the insects that keep

their lands fertile.

For people in California

and the southern U.S.A.,

the only good termite is a dead termite.

As desperate homeowners call in

the termite terminators,

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