15 replies to this topic

[Voidley]

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you all had an excellent holiday.

 

My aunt used to take care of an ant farm when she was little, so she has always been interested and supportive of my ant-keeping. A few months ago, I was talking to her about her ant farm, and the subject of a Termitat came up. Come Christmas/my birthday, and, to my delight (and my mom's dismay), it turns out that she actually got me a Termitat! So, and I’m smilling ear to ear as I write this, I am now the proud owner of a Zootermopsis angusticollis colony . Also, I can say that I got gifted termites from my aunt (you've gotta use the American  pronunciation to make that one work lol).

 

Anyways, with that introduction aside, here is my first update about these guys. They arrived with just over 25 workers and one soldier. They also seem to have quite a few nymphs which, to my understanding, will turn into neotenic reproductives. I'm not too familiar with termites and termite keeping, so I'm learning as I go. If anyone a little more expertise could confirm that this is the next step, that would be great. Also, how do you differentiate neotonics from the other nymphs? They look pretty similar from the images I’ve seen. Note that I’m basing most of this off of other member’s journals and also this diagram I found:

 

When the termites arrived, they had a lot of dry frass in their chamber. After watering they have almost completely cleared it out, which I’m pretty sure they are meant to be doing. They have already started blocking off the entrance which I hope is also a good sign. I’ve only had them for a day and they have already gotten loads of work done. They are also currently excavating a few tunnels that lead deeper into the wood—hopefully I don’t loose them in the log.

 

As for care, I’m watering them pretty generously for now, but I’ll slow down if it becomes a problem. I’m also covering the front of the nest to hopefully get them to dig up against the acrylic. I did this just by sticking a notebook to the front with a bit of blue tack so that I can easily remove it to observe them. Speaking of which, while I was watching/photographing them, I managed to capture one of the workers feeding the soldier through trophallaxis. The Termitat comes with a handy book full of information about this species. From it I learned that, like ant majors, the soldier termites cannot actually eat wood like the other termites so they must be fed by their nest mates instead. Here’s the photo of that plus a few other nice pictures I got.

 

Soldier being fed through trophallaxis:

 

The soldier standing next to a nymph:

 

Soldier standing next to a worker:

 

Colony huddle. Note the two nymphs in the top right who will hopfully become reproductives. Also, what's up with the ones in the middle who look like they have wing scars or something? There are a few of them in the colony.


And a full view of the Termitat, I'm already in love with this thing:

Edited by Voidley, December 25 2023 - 10:05 PM.

[Locness]

Congrats, that looks pretty sick 😎

[AsdinAnts]

dang! your so lucky to have a family member that would actually get you something like a termite colony lol, I have to hide my termites. Anyways, good luck with this termitat! btw, you have a W aunt.

[ANTdrew]

Very cool gift! I hope they do well for you.

[100lols]

Awesome!!! I’ve been wanting one of these lol. Can’t wait for more updates

[Voidley]

Exciting news! (I think)

I might have seen my termites mating. As I was watching the termites, I observed two termites start pressing their abdomens against each other and shaking them for ~3 minutes (based on photo timestamps) I noticed the same two doing this exact same thing again about an hour later. Is this just how termites mate? Here is a photo of them:

 

Are these supplementary reproductives? They look different than the other termites. They are a darker orange than the workers and have no wing buds like the nymphs. Here is a photo of one of the suspected neotenics shortly after they separated:

For future reference, how do you identify neotenics from other castes? Because I feel like I’ve seen more than just these two. Could the absence of royals have cause the termites to respond by overcompensating and creating extra neotenics? Oh, and here's a random thought – can you determine the sex of termites without disturbing them? Just curious!

 

Whatever this behavior is, I can’t get over how cute it is! I’m hoping that they were neotenic mating, but if they weren’t mating, then what exactly were they doing here? My only other idea was that they were transferring food, as I know they can eat from another termite’s abdomen, but I am not sure if they can exchange food between abdomens.

 

As a last update, the soldier is still uneaten. That being said, I did notice that part of its left antennae has been missing (it has been like this since the first photos). Other than that though, they are doing well. Thanks you reading this quick little update!

[Nare]

 

Exciting news! (I think)

I might have seen my termites mating. As I was watching the termites, I observed two termites start pressing their abdomens against each other and shaking them for ~3 minutes (based on photo timestamps) I noticed the same two doing this exact same thing again about an hour later. Is this just how termites mate? Here is a photo of them:

GH_03294.JPG

 

Are these supplementary reproductives? They look different than the other termites. They are a darker orange than the workers and have no wing buds like the nymphs. Here is a photo of one of the suspected neotenics shortly after they separated:

GH_03310.JPG

For future reference, how do you identify neotenics from other castes? Because I feel like I’ve seen more than just these two. Could the absence of royals have cause the termites to respond by overcompensating and creating extra neotenics? Oh, and here's a random thought – can you determine the sex of termites without disturbing them? Just curious!

 

Whatever this behavior is, I can’t get over how cute it is! I’m hoping that they were neotenic mating, but if they weren’t mating, then what exactly were they doing here? My only other idea was that they were transferring food, as I know they can eat from another termite’s abdomen, but I am not sure if they can exchange food between abdomens.

 

As a last update, the soldier is still uneaten. That being said, I did notice that part of its left antennae has been missing (it has been like this since the first photos). Other than that though, they are doing well. Thanks you reading this quick little update!

GH_03351.JPG

 

Looks like mating, yeah. I'm a little rusty on my Zoot knowledge but iirc the neotonics will be a darker orange than normal nymphs/pseudergates/workers (though not as dark as imagoes). But like I said that looks like mating behaviour anyway so you're probably good to go.

 

I know Rets (at least R. flavipes) seem to have all sorts of different pathways to reproductives (i.e. brachypterous neotonics, ergatoid neotonics etc...). Curious as to whether Zoots have multiple pathways for neotonics as well, although I suspect since they don't really have true workers to start with, they'll only have brachypterous neotonics.

 

Also interesting that one of the neotonics for sure has at least one wing bud, but I can't see any on the other. Wonder if they got chewed off or if that represents a different type of neotonic.

[Voidley]

Hello everyone! It's update time, and I must apologize for my recent inactivity. It seems the ants aren't the only ones experiencing a winter slow-down. But during this time there's been a lot brewing in the termitat, and I'm excited to share it all with you.

Up until now, not much has changed in the termitat. I've been quietly compiling various smaller observations, planning that I would eventually list them all in an update. However, today brought an unexpected development, so I will go over that and also include all of those smaller things within this one picture-heavy post.

 

First, some of the smaller things.

• The soldier is still here and has not been eaten
• The termites have excavated a lot of material and made some pretty large tunnels. In the photo below you can see the previous outline of a tunnel that I traced with a dry erase marker. Within only a few days, they have expanded that tunnel to what you can see in the photo.
• 
• There are about 30ish of them
• I am watering them whenever there is a build-up of frass, which ends up being about once a week. I think they enjoy all this moisture, but it is allowing them to cover the glass with gunk which ruins the visibility

 

I’ve been watching the new neotenics for a while now, and they do seem to be mating very often. However, I have yet to see any eggs—maybe they are hidden in the tunnels, but I still think I would see them (or at least see some tiny larvae roaming around) I have also noticed the neotenics get grommed more often than the other termites, which makes sense.

 

Strangely, I have noticed that the neotenics are now quite small compared to the other termites. I am not sure if they shrunk or if the other termites have just been getting bigger, but I for some reason always imagined that they would be the largest in the nest. In a similar vein, I have noticed that some nymphs seem really long, as long as the soldier even. They also have more developed wing buds, which I later learned the reason for.

 

On the other end of the spectrum, some of the newly molted larvae look smaller than they were previously

Can termites molt into a smaller form? (Almost like going down an install) I can’t tell if this perceived change in size is real or just all the other termites getting bigger.

 

I actually watched one termite molt and saw all of its siblings helping it get out of its old skin here:

 

Now this is super cool. After their sibling molts, the colony gathers around and eats the dead skin husk. They do this because it’s very hard to digest wood so they make sure to not let any protein go to waste.

 

Seeing this did make me wonder, why have termites evolved to eat every last bit of their deceased siblings, meanwhile ants discard their corpses and do not eat them? Is it like something to do with disease being more common among ants versus termites?

 

 

Anyways, onto the most significant news—the colony produced an alate!

This just happened today (or maybe last night) and was a huge surprise. While I am really amazed, this unexpected event raises several questions and concerns for me.

 

First of all, what do I need to do and what is the best course of action here?Should I try to get the alate out and see if I can raise them? There are no other Zootermopsis Angusticollis colonies anywhere close so they wouldn’t be able to mate. Is there any chance that they turn into a primary reproductive? I’m not sure if that is possible, but could this alate just shed their wings and become the king/queen of the nest?

 

(Speaking of which, I don’t know how to tell if this alate is male or female)

 

I’m guessing that the most likely rout this will take is that this alate will be killed since they can’t go on their nuptial flight. While that would be sad, the upside to this option is that the colony can then recycle the protein and hopefully make more worker.

 

That kind of leads me into my second question though. What do these alates mean for the colony? I still have not seen any eggs or first-instar larvae, could the neotenics be infertile, leading the colony to produce an alate as a last-ditch effort to propagate before a potential decline?

 

I’m worrying about this because I feel like a young colony like this wouldn’t normally waste their resources on reproductives while they don’t even have new workers. But maybe this is just a sign that they aren’t worried about their resources for producing more termites. After all, they haven’t decided to eat the soldier yet.

 

Looking ahead, should I anticipate more alates in the near future, considering the size of this colony? It’s pretty small colony, and I’m not sure how many alates they could even support.

Thank you all for any help or insights—I appreciate it.

 

 

Finally, here are a couple last photos that I wanted to share.

 

The newly molted worker being tended to by their nest-mates:

 

Newly molted termite watching the group eat its old skin:

 

The alate termite walking among the colony. You can see the termites to its left look like they might grow wings too:

 

The alate termite being groomed:

 

The full termitat as of 3/11/24, notice the big wall of frass they built to block up the glass:

[100lols]

So epic!!! Thanks for sharing

[Voidley]

Two more alates have shown up. You can also see that the first one has hardened and gotten darker after its molt so you can still differentiate it from the other two (2nd photo). While this is all pretty cool, I’m starting to really worry about what to do with these guys. Is this a sign of good or bad health? I have still yet to see any eggs, so I'm getting a bit nervous. I'd appreciate any advice I can get from anyone who has experience with dampwoods.

 

[Nare]

Two more alates have shown up. You can also see that the first one has hardened and gotten darker after its molt so you can still differentiate it from the other two (2nd photo). While this is all pretty cool, I’m starting to really worry about what to do with these guys. Is this a sign of good or bad health? I have still yet to see any eggs, so I'm getting a bit nervous. I'd appreciate any advice I can get from anyone who has experience with dampwoods.

 

GH_08046.JPG

GH_08070.JPG

Apparently this happens pretty often in Termitats. Anecdotally it'll be a space problem (not enough room). Possibly poor food quality but I'm told the former is more common. The idea is they'll form alates when they hit resource constraints (cause then it's time to move on). Have seen this happen in drywoods too. Seeing as you still have a lot of wood it could be a surface area problem. Dunno if you can manually add more tunnels or just let them dig them.

[Flu1d]

I'm enjoying these updates, thank you. I hope to see some more termite updates and logs in the future.. I find them to be very cool.

I hope your colony begins making reproductives and becomes big! I was thinking of keeping some of the termites that fly around me here, but I havent found the motivation yet.

I can't wait to see more from your termitat, with added good news as well!

[OhNoNotAgain]

My Termitat got a couple alates, but I never did take them out, and they disappeared eventually.

Great journal! I don't look in on my termites often enough!

[Voidley]

It’s been a little over a month now and nothing too crazy has happened. Compared to ant keeping, I can be way more laid back with these termites—it’s basically the same as keeping a plant. The alates from the last update have had some developments, though. After finding those first three, I just kept seeing more and more. They just would not stop producing alates, and they eventually got to seven! This is in a nest with only about 30 termites, so they made up a significant portion of the population for a period.

 

At this point, I was starting to get a bit worried. They were not turning into primary reproductives and they also didn’t really show any signs of trying to fly. I did see one leave the nest and venture onto the outside of the log (still in the nest though). However, it quickly returned and that was the only time I saw any of them leave. They didn’t really seem to be doing anything but sitting around the nest and taking up space. The other termites seemed to share this sentiment, because I soon noticed that they had stopped caring for the alates. Either they stopped feeding them, or the alates altruistically stopped eating. Either way, they started to get really thin, as you can see here when the alate was on the outside of the log—its abdomen is all shriveled up.

 

Not only that, but another alate seemed to have lost a part of its wing. I can’t say for certain, but I wonder if the worker termites ate part of it off, perhaps trying to gather some extra protein from the idle alates.

 

And just like that, soon after seeing this missing wing, the alates started to disappear. Just as fast as they showed up, they seemed to mysteriously vanish. I don’y know exactly when or how the other workers dispatched of them, but I would normally just see the leftover wings, which were the last to be eaten probably because they were less appealing protein-wise.

 

Currently, there are only two alates left, and no signs of new ones showing up. I am still a little worried though, because I have yet to see any eggs. The rapid creation of alates makes me think that the colony is just trying to pass on their genes before they die, so I’m worried that they might have given up on themselves. Like Nare suggested, they might think it’s time to “move on.” I also doubt that it is a lack of space because they have really done a number on this piece of wood by now—some of their tunnels are nearly an inch wide! I wonder if it has something to do with the neotenics that developed. Maybe they were unlucky and are infertile? I’m not sure what I would do about that, I doubt I could remove them from the nest, but maybe that is a last-resort strategy for me. If I remember correctly, Termitat also re-stocks your nest if all of the termites die out. It would be an unfortunate outcome, but it is a good option if all else fails and these guys don’t produce any eggs. In any case, they seem to be doing well for now, and even if they aren’t laying any eggs, they are still happily tunneling and building away, so they should be fine for a while.

[Mushu]

No experience with termites but will be picking up a colony from a friends place this weekend. Hoping it’s drywood.

I am curious about the termitat. Do you replace the wood or move them into a bigger termitat if the colony grows or hollows out the wood?

Hopefully more experienced keepers will chime in and all goes well for you. Thanks for sharing.

Edited by Mushu, May 18 2024 - 3:58 AM.

[Voidley]

And then there were none…