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Scavenger Challenge - July 2017 Assignment - My Favourite Things - I love to go walking through the bush
MAGNETIC TERMITES
In the far north of Australia lies a series of extraordinary structures, Magnetic Termites that are found nowhere else on earth. My first impressions: It was like walking into an old graveyard hidden for years in the bushland, a graveyard filled with huge tombstone towers, all perfectly aligned, north to south and built by termites. They could have been the relics of a lost civilisation.
Inside the termite mound, there are thousands perhaps hundreds of thousands of the worker termites. At the bottom of the mound, you would find the king and the queen. The queen is the egg-producing machine. At the top of the mound, there is the termite cemetery where they often bury their dead. The termite mound is a bit like a city. The workers are a small insect with the grey abdomen. These are essentially child labourers, termites that have developed but not into fully fertile adults. In our society, it would be like having the majority of the work done by much muscled 11 year olds. As an added handicap, these young builders are completely blind.
Using Northern Territory know how to tackle the secrets of the magnetic termites, researchers have come up with explanations as to why all these mounds point north/south, and how did meagre termites work out this universal alignment.
Termites are defenceless to temperature change. The workers and the soldiers, who make up the bulk of the population, have very thin skins. Termites are called white ants because their skins are so thin. They are so vulnerable that go much outside temperatures of 30 degrees C and these thin-skinned termites get terminated. Yet they live in one of the most climate variable places on earth. In the tropical savanna lands of northern Australia where summer, wet-season temperatures soar to 40 degrees and can plummet to near freezing at night during the winter, dry-season. In other areas, termites escape extreme temperatures by burrowing underground, but these termites also have to contend with getting flooded during the wet-season. The ground can be like a quagmire even up until around June and this year it is still wet on the ground in July. The termites have to figure out how to stay warm, stay in a stable temperature and stay dry above the ground. As the sun comes up over the horizon it warms the eastern face of the mound and will continue to rapidly warm it, heating up to about 30 degrees until the sun moves overhead about the middle of the day. Then this face will stop the rapid heating and will start to cool very, very slowly. In fact, it almost stays at a constant temperature. Then it is the turn for the western face to heat up before the sun sets in the evening.
To sort out whether termites were using the knowledge of the earth’s magnetic field to build their towers, researchers conducted a very high tech bush experiment. Normally most of the tiny cells that make up a mound aligned north/south, but when researches inserted magnets that changed the direction of the magnetic field, the termites duly followed. Once the magnetic field had shifted, the cells also shifted around in that direction. Therefore, it seemed as if the cue the termites were using for that north/south direction was in fact the magnetic field, although not officially scientifically proven.
Another question - Why are these Australian termites the only ones in the world to have lined themselves up to the magnetic field? Researcher can only speculate that it has something to do with the nature of the magnetic field in Australia. Fact is, in Australia the magnetic field does not change over time, in its direction as much as it does in other countries. Perhaps this phenomenon played its role in giving us wonderful animals like this and perhaps it is the biggest secret of the magnificent Magnetic Termites.
This termite nest was seen at Mistico Hanging Bridges Park near La Fortuna in north-central Costa Rica.
My friend Foeke brought several termites from Thailand for us to examine and photograph.
Here's the first shot. Canon 5DMkII, JML 21mm F/3.5, LED Ring light, polysterene cup for diffuser.
Member of the Termitoidae family, of the order Blattodea, the cockroach.
There are 4,000 species and about 2,600 taxonomically known.
Termites are commonly viewed as pests, because of the damage they can cause.
They divide labor among castes, produce overlapping generations and take care of young collectively. Termites may produce up to two litres of hydrogen from digesting a single sheet of paper, making them one of the planet’s most efficient bioreactors. The complex lignocellulose polymers within wood are broken down into simple sugars by fermenting bacteria in the termite’s gut, using enzymes.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Ein Termitenhügel im Moremi-Wildreservat (Okavangodelta, Botswana).
A Termite Mound in the Moremi Game Reserve (Okavango Delta, Botswana).
We spent at night at the Hawk Dreaming camp, a chance to explore some Top End landscapes I had not seen before.
These termite mounds were most impressive. From the park sign:
Cathedral Termite Mound
This mound is home to a colony of grass eating termites, Nasutitermes triodiae. It's about 5 meters high and could be over 50 years old.
Family: Termitidae
Litchfield National Park, Northern Territory, Australia
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fungal balls, the orange ones, are mixed in with the termites' real eggs and are tended by the termites.
Tarangire National Park, Tanzania
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The park is famous for the termite mounds that dot the
landscape. Those that have been abandoned are often
home to dwarf mongoose.
-- Wikipedia
They are not a massive termite mounds but from the side of the road they look like tomb stone.
Nikon D800 | AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G ED VR | Benro Tripod
An illustration of termites on wood.
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huge termite mounds tower over the Iveco, which is already very tall. Western Cape York Queensland, near the Coleman River. Est 4 m high. We were looking for golden shouldered parrot nests but didnt find any.
Termite worker of a species to which Plebeina armata (Hym. Apidae, Meliponinae) is associated, 20.xii.2018, Kakamega forest, Kenya.
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I came across a group of termites under loose bark. They ran frantically for hiding places. I covered them back up and hopefully they will be okay.
Termites i found under some bark. You can see nymphs of various stages, workers, and soldiers here. Eggs too (not in this image).
Up Close with Nature: orionmystery.blogspot.com/
Litchfield National Park is a truly spectacular place, some of the termite mounts you can find here are as high as a house.
They run along a precise North-South axis, this keeps the mound nice and warm all day as it offers max sun all day long.
It is unknown how the little termites determine this axis so precisely.
9 shot Panorama, taken with cirq. polarizer to enhance the beautiful greens of the grass
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The structure of the mounds can be very complicated. Inside the mound is an extensive system of tunnels and conduits that serves as a ventilation system for the underground nest. In order to get good ventilation, the termites will construct several shafts leading down to the cellar located beneath the nest. The mound is built above the subterranean nest. The nest itself is a spheroidal structure consisting of numerous gallery chambers. The Amitermes (Magnetic termites) mounds are created tall, thin, wedge-shaped, usually oriented north-south.
Q: When did you last see a termite?
A: You didn't, cos they hide in tubes like this.
On a Eucalyptus. Mareeba Wetlands Reserve, Queensland, Australia.
14 October 07 – Ricoh R6.