SUBTERRANEAN TERMITES (Coptotermes, Macrotermes)

APPEARANCE:

The worker termites measure about 5mm in length, and are a whitish colour, while the soldiers are a similar size but with brown heads and larger mandibles. The winged males and females are larger, measuring about 12-15mm in length, with 4 large veined wings. This species is commonly referred to as ‘white ants’.

BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR:

Subterranean termites create and live in nests, which are, as their name suggests, usually underground. Occasionally, however, they may build nests within buildings. Inside the nests are many workers (that fetch food, feed the immature stages, and construct the nest), but also soldiers (which defend the nest), queens (which lay eggs), and males (which mate with the queen). At the start of the monsoon season, each nest commonly produces many winged males and queens, called Alates, which swarm out of the nest to mate and search for new nesting sites.

The queen lays up to several thousand eggs every day, and can live for 5 years or more. The eggs hatch into termite nymphs, and large nests can eventually contain up to a million termites.

Termites feed only on wood and other cellulose related materials such as dead leaves, paper and cardboard.

DRYWOOD TERMITES (Cryptotermes spp. and Incisitermes spp.)

APPEARANCE:

Drywood worker termites are almost identical to subterranean termites in length and appearance. The differences lie with the soldiers and alates (reproductives). Dry wood soldiers are larger than their subterranean counterparts, with greater mandibles and wider pronotum (protective plate of the thorax). The alates have two pairs of scaled wings with a distinctive pattern of pigmented veins on the front wing.

BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR

Drywood termites live entirely within dry wood and don’t require any connection to the soil. Drywood termites are far less dependent on external moisture sources than subterranean termites. In fact, large amounts of moisture can wipe out colonies. They live entirely on wood and other cellulose-based materials and can be easily identified by fecal pellets.

DAMPWOOD TERMITES (Zootermopsis spp. and Neotermes spp.)

APPEARANCE:

Dampwood termites are larger than both drywood and subterranean termites. The soldiers have large multi-toothed mandibles and can grow up to 20mm in length. The alates can grow up to 25mm in length.

BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR:

Dampwood termites as the name suggests, prefer to live in damp, decaying timber. There are no worker termites in dampwood colonies, immature soldier termites carry out the tasks usually performed by worker termites in other colonies. Colonies are small and concentrated and are very rarely found in the soil.