The Explorers (from The Australians series)
Published between 1979 and 1990 under the pen name William Stuart Long, these novels shaped the imagination of Australia as heroic, empty and waiting to be claimed. Fenwick describes them as ‘settler fan fiction’, popular myth-making narratives that reinforced a particular vision of settlement.
Termitaria, Larrakia land
Often called ‘compass’ mounds, they are aligned precisely on a north-south axis to minimise sun exposure and keep the colony cool.
Photograph: Liss Fenwick
Photograph: Liss Fenwick
Termitaria, Larrakia land
Unlike the subterranean termites that eat wood & paper, these magnetic termites construct tall, external mounds. Their forms – broad east–west faces, thin north–south edges – demonstrate a precise intelligence for regulating temperature and airflow.
Photograph: Liss Fenwick
🐜🏘️ Invasive subterranean #termites are moving through #Florida at an alarming rate.
New #research shows that warming temperatures are allowing these destructive #insects to expand their territory farther north than ever before.
👉 https://www.popsci.com/environment/termite-spread-florida/
#entomology #science #environment #STEM #climatechange #climate
I just learned that #termites contain bacteria in their gut that produce lots of #CO2 and #H2 from the wood fibers they eat. AND THEN they have ANOTHER type of bacteria that feeds on the #CO2 and #H2 , to produce acetate that in turn THE #termites THEMSELF eat! How cool!
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0019316
Anaerobic carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) is a key enzyme in the Wood-Ljungdahl (acetyl-CoA) pathway for acetogenesis performed by homoacetogenic bacteria. Acetate generated by gut bacteria via the acetyl-CoA pathway provides considerable nutrition to wood-feeding dictyopteran insects making CODH important to the obligate mutualism occurring between termites and their hindgut microbiota. To investigate CODH diversity in insect gut communities, we developed the first degenerate primers designed to amplify cooS genes, which encode the catalytic (β) subunit of anaerobic CODH enzyme complexes. These primers target over 68 million combinations of potential forward and reverse cooS primer-binding sequences. We used the primers to identify cooS genes in bacterial isolates from the hindgut of a phylogenetically lower termite and to sample cooS diversity present in a variety of insect hindgut microbial communities including those of three phylogenetically-lower termites, Zootermopsis nevadensis, Reticulitermes hesperus, and Incisitermes minor, a wood-feeding cockroach, Cryptocercus punctulatus, and an omnivorous cockroach, Periplaneta americana. In total, we sequenced and analyzed 151 different cooS genes. These genes encode proteins that group within one of three highly divergent CODH phylogenetic clades. Each insect gut community contained CODH variants from all three of these clades. The patterns of CODH diversity in these communities likely reflect differences in enzyme or physiological function, and suggest that a diversity of microbial species participate in homoacetogenesis in these communities.
Mammals have developed some unusual eating habits over the past 100 million years, but a new study has uncovered the surprising lengths to which some have gone to satisfy one of the more peculiar—a taste for #ants and #termites.
Mammals independently evolved specialized adaptations for exclusively feeding on ants and termites at least 12 times since the #Cenozoic era began, roughly 66 million years ago.
The #convergent #evolution among #mammals toward this dietary strategy—called #myrmecophagy—emerged following the K-Pg #extinction and fall of non-avian dinosaurs, which reshaped ecosystems and set the stage for ant and termite colonies to rapidly expand worldwide.
Over 200 mammal #species are known to eat ants and termites today, yet only about 20 true myrmecophages—such as giant anteaters, aardvarks and pangolins—have evolved traits like long sticky tongues, specialized claws and stomachs, and reduced or missing teeth, to efficiently consume thousands of these insects daily as their sole food source.
#evolution #ecology #biology
https://phys.org/news/2025-07-mammals-evolved-ant-eaters-dinosaur.html
Vida et al. (2025):
https://academic.oup.com/evolut/article-abstract/79/10/2315/8155241
Mammals have developed some unusual eating habits over the past 100 million years, but a new study has uncovered the surprising lengths to which some have gone to satisfy one of the more peculiar—a taste for ants and termites.
These adorable creatures are Nasutitermes walkeri, the native Australian tree #termite! Accidentally damaged their tube while trying to photograph something else, which exposed them for this photo!
#WildOz #OzInverts #MacroPhotography #Meanjin #Brisbane #Australia #Nature #Arthropod #Insect #Termites
earthling
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