ZA
Termites are very interesting creatures! Within one termite mound, you have several different occupations. The termites seen outside of the mound, are called the harvesters. They go out and forage for any grass seeds, plant seeds etc, that they can get. They take this back to the ‘castle’ Inside the caste, we have farmers, baby sitters, the queen and the king.
The termites inside the ‘castle’ cannot digest food by themselves. In order for them to eat anything, the harvesters eats the food first, when half digested, they regurgitate it on the shelves in the ‘pantry’.
Farmer termites then take over the tending of the food until they grow some fungi that helps break down the food even more. Only after this process can the termites inside the termite mound eat something.
You often see trees or plants grow on top of a termite mount, because of the germination of the seeds that gets tended by the termites.
Termite mounds are kept at a constant 37 °C and they will open and close the mound in order to keep that temperature.