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The reproductive caste of a mature colony includes a wealthy female and male, known as the queen and king.61 The queen of this colony is responsible for egg production for the colony. Unlike in ants, the king mates with her for life.62 In certain species, the abdomen of this queen swells up dramatically to increase fecundity, a characteristic known as physogastrism.61 Depending on the species, the queen begins producing reproductive winged alates at a certain time of year, and enormous swarms emerge from the colony when nuptial flight begins.
A young termite nymph. Nymphs first moult into employees, but others might further moult to become soldiers or alates.
Termites are often compared with all the social Hymenoptera (ants and various species of bees and wasps), but their differing evolutionary origins result in significant differences in life span. In the eusocial Hymenoptera, the employees are exclusively female. Males (drones) are haploid and develop from unfertilised eggs, while females (both employees and the queen) are diploid and develop from fertilised eggs.
Depending on species, both male and female employees may have different functions in a termite colony.63.
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The life span of a termite begins with an egg, but is different from that of a bee or ant in that it goes through a developmental process called incomplete metamorphosis, with egg, nymph and adult phases.64 Nymphs resemble small adults, and undergo a series of moults as they grow.
The development of nymphs into adults can take months; the time period depends on food availability, temperature, and the general population of the colony. Since nymphs are unable to feed themselves, workers must feed thembut employees also get involved in the social life of their colony and also have certain different activities to achieve such as foraging, building or maintaining the nest or tending to the queen.5367 Pheromones govern the caste system in termite colonies, preventing all but a very few of the termites from becoming fertile queens.68.
Queens of the eusocial termite Reticulitermes speratus are effective at a long lifespan without sacrificing fecundity. These long-lived queens have a significantly lower level of oxidative damage, including oxidative DNA damage, than employees, soldiers and nymphs.69 The lower levels of harm seem to be due to increased catalase, an enzyme that protects against oxidative stress.69.
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For instance, alates in certain species appear during the day in summer while some emerge during winter.71 The nuptial flight may also begin at dusk, when the alates swarm around areas with lots of lights. The time when nuptial flight begins depends on the environmental conditions, the time of day, moisture, wind speed and precipitation.71 The number of termites in a colony also fluctuates, with the bigger species typically having 1001,000 individuals.
The queen only lays 1020 eggs in the very early phases of the colony, but lays as many as 1,000 a day when the colony is several years old.53 At adulthood, a primary queen has a great capability to lay eggs. In certain species, the adult queen has a greatly distended abdomen and might produce 40,000 eggs per day.72 The two adult ovaries may have some 2,000 ovarioles each.73 The abdomen increases the queen's body length to a number of times more than prior to mating and reduces her ability to maneuver freely; attendant workers provide assistance. .
The king develops only slightly larger after initial mating and continues to mate with the queen for life (a termite queen can live between 30Â to 50Â years); this is very different from ant colonies, in that a queen teammates once together with the male(s) and stores the gametes for life, as the male ants die soon after mating.6267 When your queen is absent, a termite king produces pheromones which encourage the development of replacement termite queens.74 Since the queen and king are monogamous, sperm competition does not happen.75.
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Termites going through incomplete metamorphosis on the path to becoming alates type a subcaste in certain species of termite, functioning as potential supplementary reproductives. These supplementary reproductives only grow into primary reproductives upon the passing of a king or queen, or when the primary reproductives are separated from the colony.6676 Supplementaries have the capacity to replace a deceased primary reproductive, and there can also be greater than a single supplementary within a colony.53 Some queens have the capacity to change from sexual reproduction to asexual reproduction.