Whenever the summer rains come or not, friends in parts of the southern part of our country will always be sad and even panicked because of a small bug.
Full-text high-energy early warning
In the summer dusk in the middle and low altitude areas of the south, under the dim light of the houses near the mountain woodlands, soon there will be a small insect with four narrow gray wings, followed by two, three, thousands... In the southwest region of the middle and high altitudes, at noon in May and June, at noon [jì], these small bugs will fly slowly from river banks, embankments, mountains and forests to the sky in groups, and they flap their wings gently, like gray dandelions that fly on a very whirling flight.
A colony of termites flying under a lamp. | TOPick News / YouTube
In fact, this type of bug is the infamous termite, but also the breeding ant of termites. They are conducting large many-to-many blind dates.
Because of the excessive number, it is even on the news.
A large unspeakable
Strictly speaking, the marriage flight of termites should be called "split flight". Split flight refers to the phenomenon in which male and female winged adults fly out of the nest and spread when environmental conditions are suitable. Marriage flying is a phenomenon in which male and female winged adults fly in groups in order to "find a partner". In addition to termites, some ants also have the phenomenon of flying apart. There are many kinds of insects that fly in marriage, such as mosquitoes, fú [fú] ephemerals [yóu], some dragonflies and butterflies.
Clustered termites. | Fluttershy
Termite marriage is actually a means of expanding territory and breeding offspring. Termites are social insects, and most termites have a strict hierarchy. There are different grades of ant kings, queens, worker ants, soldier ants, breeding ants, etc. in the nest, and their social division of labor is also different, and only the breeding ants have complete wings.
Soldier ants also have different types of | Fluttershy
Every summer around the rainy season, when the environment is suitable, the worker ants will open a flying hole near the nest, and the breeding ants will fly out of the nest one after another after noticing that there is no danger nearby. At this time, the nearby same species of termites flew out as if they had agreed. Most termites prefer to marry after dusk, and a few termites fly at noon after the daytime rain. Their ability to fly is not strong, so most of them are reduced to rations for frogs, birds, spiders, fish and other animals.
Birds are also busy enjoying termite meals as termites fly apart. | wildtomorrowfund / youtube
They flew for a distance and then fell to the ground, then began to shake their wings and shake them off. After that, the termites begin to look for objects, look at each other, and then follow each other, both of them go into the ground to start building nests, and then mate and lay eggs. The breeding ant queen becomes a "founding" queen ant, who will give birth to a large number of children and then build a huge termite empire.
Let's get together and what are you screaming about?
In the insect world, clustering is common. Some cluster insects just stay together by chance, such as many of the same species of insects, which may congregate on a plant they like to eat. Some cluster behaviors are genetically controlled instincts. Social insects, such as termites, bees, and ants, spend their entire lives with other members. The purpose of insect swarms is also different, including finding objects, raising offspring, finding food, fighting enemies together, and staying cold in winter.
Swarms of termites. | Fluttershy
Some insects will part ways after hatching, while others will stay for a while, such as some bugs [chūn].
Nymphs of the family Bugs often colonize briefly after hatching. | Fluttershy
Swarm feeding bug nymphs. | Fluttershy
Some insects are grouped together throughout the larval stage, such as most moths, a few butterflies, bugs, flies, mosquitoes, etc.
Group feeding leaf beetle larvae. | Fluttershy
Some insects will choose the same place to concentrate pupae, such as flies, leaf beetles and so on.
Many adults will "go on a group date", which makes it easier to find objects. Some insects will wait for "lovers" to appear in specific environments, such as butterflies, flies, etc. Others release sexual pheromones that attract the opposite sex, such as some scarab beetles.
The swaying mosquitoes flying by the lake cannot get out of the light and gather into a | Fluttershy
Anomoneura mori nymph and adult nymph clusters of mulberry wood lice | Fluttershy
Some insects "pile up" during both adult and larval stages, which can increase the chances of survival.
Pyrrhaltasp. concentrates pupae on elm trunks. | Fluttershy
In addition, some adults overwinter in clusters. In late autumn, in the warm house of your home, you may encounter a large number of children who make you have "dense phobia", such as the Coccinella septempunctata and the halyomorpha halys, commonly known as the "stinky big sister".
Crunchy fried termites
So the question is, they are blind dates, why should they run to our house? In fact, they are mostly misguided. Breeding ants appear in the home for two reasons: 1. There are termites living in the home; 2. The lights are turned on at home, forgetting to close the doors and windows, and the breeding ants enter your home in groups and start dating. The former is unlikely to happen, and if you really have a good cleaning of the house, you will definitely find termites early. The latter is because the light interferes with the direction of their flight, and when they are "blindfolded", they will fly towards the lamp.
Winged termites, responsible for reproduction. | Fluttershy
Don't panic when there is an outbreak of breeding ants in your home. The number of breeding ants in marriage is very large, and the head is fresh and juicy, soft and fat, and they all raise themselves white and fat before leaving the nest, which is very nutritious. Grab them and rip off their wings to wash them, throw them in a frying pan and fry them until golden brown and sprinkle them with salt, and the children next door are hungry and crying. If they dare to do something shameful in the living room, they will have to pay a little price.
This is no joke, there are records of termite consumption all over the world. Some parts of Africa will make termites into sauce as a delicacy to entertain guests, and the people of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China, have a long history of eating breeding ants. If you really can't go down, if you find breeding ants in your home, you can close the doors and windows, and then clear the breeding ants out of the house. They don't bite, but they can be confidently pinched and played with with with their hands.
Children in Mozambique pick up "crunchy" breeding termites on the ground. | TimCowley / wikipedia
Comment on the merits of termites
Every termite wedding season, people will panic, afraid that they will work hard to pay the down payment of the house, and the next day will be eaten into a sieve by termites. Major news media will also rush to report sensational information such as "New houses are being seized by "flying ants"" and so on. This stems more or less from our long-standing prejudice against termites. In the foreign cartoons I watched when I was a child, termites instantly gnawed furniture and houses into a pile of wood chips. It convinced me for a long time that termites were the stomach kings who destroyed all woodwork. Actually, termites aren't all bad guys.
Termites ate Tom's chair. | Tom and Jerry, Jacob Roy/YouTube
Termites are nibbling on melon peels, and they sometimes clean up the garbage that we humans produce, | Fluttershy
We often say that termites are not an animal, but a class of animals, which is a general term for insects of the general family of termites. Termite habits vary from species to species, with some termites posing a serious threat to human daily life and some termites being valuable resources.
The first major harm of termites as we know it is "wood-eating", which can harm many wooden items such as furniture, houses, and ancient buildings. In fact, termites that can destroy furniture houses account for only a small part of termites, and they will cause furniture destruction and house collapse after chewing on wood for a long time. For example, the black-breasted loose termite (Reticulitermes chinensis). These termites like to nest in houses and ancient buildings, and once they find nests, they should be prevented immediately.
Termites nest in wood. | Fluttershy
The second biggest hazard of termites is burrowing. As the saying goes, the of a thousand miles collapses in the ant nest, and the ant here refers to termites rather than ants. They build developed underground nests on levees, river banks, etc., causing dikes to break, which may cause huge disasters such as flooding villages and cultivated land. However, these termites also make up only a small fraction of termites, mostly of the species of the earth termite genus Odontotermes and macroterme. Black-winged earth termite (O. formosanus) are the most dominant termites that harm the.
Termites forage. | Fluttershy
Interestingly, these termites do not eat wood, but rather mushroom hyphae. They collect plant remnants such as dead branches and leaves from the outside environment as the substrate for growing mushroom hyphae, and when the hyphae they plant grow, they will break through the soil and become mushrooms. The southwestern delicacy chicken [zōng], belonging to the genus Termitomycesspp., is a type of mushroom often grown by termites. From this point of view, these termites are also precious resource insects.
Some termites also harm crops and trees, nesting in trees and even cutting roots and skinning trees to cause them to die, but there are not many species. In addition, sometimes termites can bite objects such as cables.
Termitomyces heimii, a close relative of the chicken, is edible and taken in a market in Yunnan. | Wang, Liu, and Yu / wikipedia
Although termites are "evil", it is not objective to treat all termites as the devil who chews on the house. They play a very important role in the ecosystem as decomposers, decomposing the garbage in the forest.
Author: Zhai Feiling
Nutshell
ID：Guokr42
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