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Dec. 18, 2008 10:53 AM


Wood is a very strong material and very few animals are able to use it (eat it) as a food. Termites can consume wood but they need help from some unusual protozoa and bacteria, and a few friendly fungi. This is a “get-along-to-go-along” relationship that has been in place for a long time. It enables termites to eat almost any kind of wood anywhere in the world.

Wood-decaying fungi help termites in several ways: they provide nutrition by supplying vitamins; they detoxify certain types of wood; and some fungi produce feeding stimulants to keep termites workers eating the wood. But not all fungi are helpful. Some wood-decaying fungi produce toxic substances that prevent termites from feeding, or they remove nutrients from the wood.

It is the various protozoa and bacteria in the gut of termites that are the most important and the most interesting to their eating habits. Several species of protozoa live in the gut of termites and they feed on the fragments of wood they find there. These protozoa also need help in digesting cellulose (wood), so they have special bacteria living in their gut that complete this process. The interdependent cycle works like this: termites need the protozoa and the protozoa need the bacteria, and nobody can live alone. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement for everyone: the termite, the protozoa, and the bacteria.

Now that we have bacteria digesting the wood, what happens next? Those bacteria living in the stomachs of termites, some with the name of Methanobrevibacter, are giving the termites gas! Specifically methane gas – the stuff that wrecks the ozone layer and contributes to climate change. One research report states termites are responsible for 30% of the methane in the atmosphere; another report lists the contribution at 5% (cows are thought to be responsible for about 11%).

References: Symbiosis and Evolution. 1971. Lynn Margulis. Scientific American 225 (2): 48-57.

Putting on Airs. 1995. May Berenbaum. American Entomologist (Winter); 199-200.