Brachypelma

Brachypelma

Monday 21 August 2017

Termite nuptial flight

I haven't ever really thought much about termites until yesterday. I recently moved from a large city to an acreage in a different province. This place is an insect/arachnid heaven. There is so much to see and discover here. On a short hike yesterday I found an old stump that looked quite occupied. I dug around pulling out rotten wood and food a few small spiders, a harvestman and some termites, including what was obviously a termite queen-to-be (alate). I obviously disturbed her and she worked hard to get away from me and burrow down into the wood. Having seen one, and now knowing what they look like,  today I noticed a lot of them flying around and hitting the ground. I ran home and grabbed some containers and managed to find four of them before the light got too dim for me to find anymore. Below are some shots of one with her wings still, and the others with wings already taken off. These guys were super fast and really hard to take pictures of. At one point, while trying to take a picture of one on my hand, I dropped it on the floor and had a really hard time finding it. Not sure my wife would have been too impressed by my introducing a termite queen into our very old, primarily wooden house. Fortunately I managed to find it again. I kept two to try my hand at a captive (well enclosed) colony, and fed the other two to a couple of my spiders.