Wildlife
Termites are a highly successful group of colonial insects, with thousands of species. They build nests in trees or underground, as well as building large mounds above ground. Just like cows, many types of termite have special micro-organisms in their guts to help them digest plants.
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The giant anteater and the termites
Anteaters don’t only eat ants - they often prefer termites.
Anteaters don’t only eat ants - they often prefer termites. This is because, gram for gram, termites are one of the richest sources of the nutrient nitrogen, which is needed for making proteins. Even in grasslands, which are known for their lack of nitrogen in the soil, termites thrive. The reason? Termites can make their own nitrogen from thin air. Which is why grasslands need termites.
Alien invasion
Termites discover lace monitor lizard eggs residing in their home.
Termites discover lace monitor lizard eggs residing in their home.
Fast food
Anteaters leave a trail of destruction as they snack speedily on termites.
Anteaters leave a trail of destruction as they snack speedily on termites.
Inside the mound
David Attenborough gets inside a termite mound to explain its function.
While more recent sequences have been captured inside hard to reach places with miniature camera probes, this approach was more bodily! The termite mound was big enough - though only just - for David Attenborough to squeeze inside after the cameraman and present his commentary in the heat and desperately close confines of the mound. It was this kind of passionate engagement with the subject that set the bar for natural history presenting.
Aardvark diet
Despite its bulk, the aardvark exists on a diet of ants and termites.
A shy, elusive creature, the aardvark exists on a diet of ants and termites. The males can grow to weigh as much as a fully grown man, feeding entirely on the huge numbers of these insects that live on the savannah. Termite nests can be far apart and it can take an aardvark up to an hour to find one, but they'll go to great lengths to find them as they need to eat in the region of 100,000 of these insects every night.
The Termites can be found in a number of locations including: Africa, Amazon Rainforest, Asia, Australia, China, Europe, Indian subcontinent, Mediterranean, North America, South America. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
Learn more about the other animals and plants that also form these fossils.
AmberTermites 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.
Like ants, and some bees and wasps—which are all placed in the separate order Hymenoptera—termites divide labor among castes, produce overlapping generations and take care of young collectively. Termites mostly feed on dead plant material, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, soil, or animal dung, and about 10% of the estimated 4,000 species (about 2,600 taxonomically known) are economically significant as pests that can cause serious structural damage to buildings, crops or plantation forests. Termites are major detritivores, particularly in the subtropical and tropical regions, and their recycling of wood and other plant matter is of considerable ecological importance.
As eusocial insects, termites live in colonies that, at maturity, number from several hundred to several million individuals. Colonies use decentralised, self-organised systems of activity guided by swarm intelligence which exploit food sources and environments unavailable to any single insect acting alone. A typical colony contains nymphs (semimature young), workers, soldiers, and reproductive individuals of both sexes, sometimes containing several egg-laying queens.
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George's marvellous minibeasts
A video collection featuring bugs and insects in amazing close up selected by insect expert and TV presenter George McGavin, with Goliath spiders, killer centipedes, ants and moths.
David Attenborough's favourite moments
Watch the most memorable moments from an incredible career watching wildlife, chosen by Sir David from the BBC archive.
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