Termites

Termites (Isoptera) are plagued by bad press. They destroy the livelihood of tropical farmers, literally eat their way through our homes, and even threaten our cultural heritage, including assaults on the Statue of Liberty in New York, the ancient books of the Vatican, or the historical city of Isfahan in Iran. One estimate from 2005 put the annual damage at about US$ 50 billion worldwide, with the US alone investing more than US$ 11 billion in termite control in 1994. As is so often the case, however, the termites’ disrepute is the result of the actions of just a few, and the great majority of the over 2,600 described species are dwellers of the dark, whose pivotal role in ecosystem function often goes unnoticed. Termites are evolutionarily and ecologically very successful insects that share a common ancestry with cockroaches. Living in complex societies and being able to digest wood with the aid of a diverse symbiotic gut fauna seems to be the basis for this success story.