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The soldier caste has anatomical and behavioural specialisations, and their only real purpose is to defend the colony. Many soldiers have large heads with highly altered strong jaws so enlarged they cannot feed themselves. Instead, such as juveniles, they are fed by workers.5556 Fontanelles, simple holes in the forehead which exude defensive secretionsare a characteristic of their family Rhinotermitidae.57 Many species have been readily identified using the characteristics of the soldiers' bigger and darker head and massive mandibles.53 Among certain termites, soldiers may utilize their globular (phragmotic) heads to obstruct their narrow tunnels.58 Different types of soldiers include minor and major soldiers, and nasutes, which have a horn-like nozzle frontal projection (a nasus).53 These unique soldiers can spray noxious, sticky secretions containing diterpenes at their enemies.59 Nitrogen fixation plays an important part in nasute nutrition.60.
The reproductive caste of a mature colony includes a prosperous female and male, known as the queen and king.61 The queen of this colony is responsible for egg production for the colony. Unlike in ants, the king mates with her for life.62 In certain species, the abdomen of the queen swells up dramatically to increase fecundity, a characteristic known as physogastrism.61 Depending on the species, the queen begins producing reproductive winged alates at a certain time of year, and enormous swarms emerge from the colony when nuptial flight begins.
A young termite nymph. Nymphs first moult into employees, but others may farther moult to become soldiers or alates.
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Termites are often compared with the social Hymenoptera (ants and various species of bees and wasps), but their differing evolutionary origins result in major differences in life cycle. In the eusocial Hymenoptera, the workers are entirely female. Men (drones) are haploid and develop from unfertilised eggs, while females (both workers and the queen) are diploid and develop from fertilised eggs.
Depending on species, male and female employees may have different functions in a termite colony.63.
The life span of a termite begins with an egg, but is different from that of a bee or ant in that it goes through a developmental process called incomplete metamorphosis, with egg, nymph and adult phases.64 Nymphs resemble small adults, and go through a series of moults as they develop.
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The development of nymphs into adults can take months; the time frame depends on food availability, temperature, and the general population of this colony. Since nymphs are unable to feed themselves, workers must feed them, but workers also take part in the social life of their colony and also have certain different tasks to accomplish such as foraging, building or maintaining the nest or tending to the queen.5367 Pheromones regulate the caste system in termite colonies, preventing all but a very few of those termites from becoming fertile queens.68.
Termite alates only leave the colony when a nuptial flight occurs. Alate men and females pair up together and then land in search of a suitable place for a colony.70 A termite king and queen do not mate until they find such a spot. When they perform they excavate a chamber big enough for both, shut up the entrance and proceed to mate.70 After mating, the set never go outdoors and spend the rest of their lives in the nest.
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For example, alates in certain species emerge during the day in summer while some emerge during the winter.71 The nuptial flight might also begin at dusk, when the alates swarm around areas with lots of lights. The time when nuptial flight begins depends on the environmental conditions, the time of day, moisture, wind speed and precipitation.71 The number of termites in a colony also fluctuates, with the bigger species typically having 1001,000 individuals.
The queen only lays 1020 eggs in the very early phases of the colony, but lays as many as 1,000 a day when the colony is a few years site web old.53 At adulthood, a primary queen has a fantastic capacity to lay eggs. In certain species, the adult queen has a greatly distended abdomen and may create 40,000 eggs per day.72 Both mature ovaries may possess some 2,000 ovarioles imp source each.73 The abdomen increases the queen's body length to several times greater than prior to mating and reduces her ability to move freely; attendant workers offer assistance.