Desert Subterranean Termites
Quite a lucky find! While flipping over rocks searching for scorpions in northwestern Texas I chanced upon a (possibly brand new) desert subterranean termite colony. Normally found deep underground, under the rock I found the big queen termite, the king termite similar-looking but much smaller, and a number of worker termites. Hazarding a somewhat educated guess I'm going to say that these belong to the native Reticulitermes genus - a beneficial species that takes the role of fungus and algae in breaking down plant and wood material in the most arid of deserts where fungi and algae can't survive.
- Copyright
- ©2015
- Image Size
- 6000x4000 / 26.9MB
- Keywords
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Animalia, Arthropoda, Blattodea, Chihuahuan Desert, Culberson County, Dictyoptera, Guadalupe Mountains, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Heterotermitinae, Insecta, Isoptera, Neoptera, Pterygota, Reticulitermes, Rhinotermitidae, Texas, animal, antennae, arthropod, biting, bug, colony, critter, desert, desert subterranean termites, fauna, insect, invertebrate, national park, native, natural, nature, queen, social, southwest, spring, structure, subterranean, system, termite, termites, terrestrial, underground, white, wild, wildlife, wood, worker, workers
- Contained in galleries
- Insects
