View allAll Photos Tagged Termite
Drepanotermes rubriceps
ID Tony Postle on BowerBird 26 Sept 2016
I found a hole with antennae showing. I wasn't sure what they were but the insects backed down the hole quickly when I touched the hole with a straw.
I came past later and there was a stream of termites running for the hole. It didn't take long for them all to disappear down the hole. I was hoping they would come out later but didn't see them again.
I didn't see/take notice of any evidence of termite mounds but thought many of the sticks on the ground had been eaten by termites and covered in sand.
From Yalgoo area. September 2016
Photos: Jean
"The universe speaks, You just need to listen"
Pattern created by winged termites.
Bandarban, April 2013
Look at the mandibles! Scary, yet fascinating. I was on my knees and elbows, photographing one when all of a sudden I felt a sharp pain on my left wrist - one of the soldiers got its mandibles locked into my flesh! Ouch.
Macrotermes carbonarius (ID suggested by Stephane De Greef)
The Magnetic Mounds in Litchfield may be more famous but this field of Termite Mounds in Djukbinj National Park is far more extensive.
Litchfield National Park, close to Darwin, is an excellent place to view the two different types of Termite mounds in large numbers. The robust Cathedral mounds can attain a height of 7 metres, while the smaller blade-like Magnetic mounds are constructed on an East-West axis so that the Sun's rays throughout the day are concentrated along the thicker "sharp" edge of the structure.
Following one failed hunt (where a branched snapped as she sprang off a fallen tree that likely saved the impala's life) a new lookout point was found. Hidden behind a small termite mound the watchfull eye waited for a new target.
Mombo Camp, Moremi National Park, Okavango Delta, Botswana.
June 2016
Look at the mandibles! Scary, yet fascinating. I was on my knees and elbows, photographing one when all of a sudden I felt a sharp pain on my left wrist - one of the soldiers got its mandibles locked into my flesh! Ouch.
Macrotermes carbonarius (ID suggested by Stephane De Greef)
www.blackhorsepestcontrol.ae/termite/
You hardly see them, but you can see the structural damage they cause. Termites can destroy a wooden window or door within just a year, compromising the whole structure of the house. If you find your doors decaying or feels like something is eating it, you have a termite infestation. In such a case, immediately look for termite control services provided by a reliable company. Black Horse Pest Control is a renowned company in Dubai and UAE for its superior quality termite pest control Dubai service. The company has been doing this for over a decade and has the equipment and the skill to accomplish the job.
Bicolored Mound-dwelling Tiger Beetle - Cheilonycha auripennis
(Cheilonycha auripennis auripennis Lucas, 1857)
This species is associated with termite mounds and likely preys on the termites.
References
- iNaturalist www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1410493-Cheilonycha-auripennis
- Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheilonycha_auripennis
- Catalogue of Life www.catalogueoflife.org/data/taxon/TSDH
- Guerra, J.F. (1993) Some observations of the Termite mound-dvelling tiger beetle Cheilonycha auripennis Lucas , from northeastern Bolivia. Cicindela, 25, 23–26.
Immersed in a brain spa at the Santa Fe Institute today, a weekend symposium on the multi-dimensions of evolution.
The first speaker was Prof. Daniel Dennett, always entertaining and provocative.
Here he shows a termite colony on the left and Gaudi’s cathedral on the right.
“The termite has no boss. None of them understands what they have built. Gaudi was an autocratic builder.”
David Krakauer’s Introduction:
“Evolution is the most important science of the 21st Century. But it is often treated as a field that has not itself evolved. Criticizing evolution by targeting Darwin is both foolish and amusing. If Darwin dropped into one of our labs today, he would not recognize it. Our work is very experimental, quantitative and mathematical. Evolutionary biology is the most mathematical of the biological sciences.”
Dennett quotes:
The trickle down theory of creation was “obvious” to people.
The bubble up theory of creation provides one unified perspective, one elegant synoptic model.
Darwin and Turing present a strange inversion of reasoning.
Turing showed that the computer does not need to know what arithmetic is. Computers have competence without comprehension.
Understanding is the effect, not the cause.
Natural selection is an automatic reason-finder. It doesn’t have to know what it is doing. The “Need to Know” principle in the intelligence community has an analog in the biosphere, driven by thrift rather than security.
We attribute more understanding than there needs to be. We lack a familiar conceptualization of semi-understood quasi-representations.
Like life being made of non-living parts, comprehension can be made from non-comprehending parts.
Our brains are more like termite castles than Turing’s computers.
Italian newspaper headline, translated: “Yes we have a soul, but it’s made of lots of tiny robots.”
Branching neurons are descendants of free-swimming organisms.
When running cultural software, brains become minds.
It’s not magic; it’s teamwork.
Words are memes that can be pronounced.
For evolution, you need high-fidelity copying, but it can’t be perfect copying.
The sea shapes the designs of Polynesian boats. If the boat makes it back home, copy it.
Memes are software viruses.
We are the first intelligent designers in the tree of life.
In response to my question about inscrutability of evolved artifacts:
“Yes, reverse engineering the brain may prove infeasible.”
Termites are a group of eusocial insects that, until recently, were classified at the taxonomic rank of order Isoptera (see taxonomy below), but are now accepted as the epifamily Termitoidae, of the cockroach order Blattodea. While termites are commonly known, especially in Australia, as "white ants," they are only distantly related to the ants.
Litchfield National Park, close to Darwin, is an excellent place to view the two different types of Termite Mounds in large numbers. The robust Cathedral mounds can attain a height of 7 metres, while the smaller blade-like Magnetic mounds are constructed on an East-West axis so that the Sun's rays throughout the day are concentrated along the thicker "sharp" edge of the structure.
These geckos are quite common in area where I often go for macro walk, I find these little creatures very cute mainly these Juveniles, adults look dull and lack the colors.
Captured with Canon 750d and 18-55 kit lens, used External flash with radiant diffuser.