Termites nests are filled with hundred, thousands, and sometimes millions of termites that all act as a kind of family. Each member of the next has its functional role within the “caste system.” The caste system is divided into three castes: worker, solider, and reproductive.
Worker Caste
The worker caste is the larger group, consisting of both male and female “immatures.” Workers perform all of the hard labor in the nest, cleaning, gathering food and water, caring for young termites, and constructing the galleries and tunnels of the nest. Workers are capable and have the genetic capacity to go through additional molts to become either soldiers or reproductives. Though most will remain workers.
Soldier Caste
A termite in the soldier caste works to defend the nest from predators. They have large mandibles that help them perform this duty. Because of their large mandibles, they are unable to feed themselves, and thus rely on the worker termites to help them perform this task.
Reproductive Caste
There is always a king and queen responsible for founding new termite nests. Once a colony is mature, reproductives swarm from the parent nest for a short mating flight. During this flight male and female reproductives mate and form new colonies. A termite’s caste is regulated by pheromones that the queen and king termites produce and circulate throughout the colony. These pheromones inhibit workers (able to form into any caste) of the same sex from molting into reproductive adults. When a member of the royalty die off there is less pheromone that is produced, thus indicating to the nest that workers are needed to molt into royalty. If excess numbers of soldiers or reproductives occur, they may be killed and eaten by the workers, in order to maintain an optimal colony size.
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