David Sillam-Dussé - Unity is strength! The tasks done collectively by termites have enabled them to be among the dominant insects in the tropics

Of all the impressive creations of animals, termite nests are the ones you quickly notice when you travel to the tropics. These constructions are carried out by the workers collectively, termites do not work alone and they need to exchange all the time information between them to perform many tasks as the building of the nest, the search of food or the defense of the colony. Nest building and search of food are done under the protection of the soldiers. In case of a predator attack, soldiers can alert their nestmates through vibrations and/or an alarm pheromone. When colonies are mature and environmental conditions are good, winged individuals fly from these colonies to find a sexual partner through the use of a sex pheromone. Once together, individuals can initiate their own colony or, in some species, find the nest of another termite species and take part of this nest. This cohabitation is regulated chemically to avoid conflicts between the two species. These exchanges of constant information between individuals enabled these social insects to be among the dominant insects in the tropics. All these aspects will be discussed during this seminar.