Termites feed through good vibrations
Discovery that termites use vibrations to choose the wood they eat may provide opportunities to new methods of reducing infestations in homes and also may provide insights into the "cocktail party effect" of signal processing ?how to ignore most noise but have some signals that trigger attention ?that may prove useful in artificial intelligence. CSIRO entomologist Theo Evans says laborato...Fungus Effective Against Winged Termites
Most signs of spring, like budding trees, are worth celebrating. But for many in the South, the annual emergence of fertile, winged termites swarming furiously to scatter and search for mates isn't one of them. In New Orleans, as the swirling, airborne masses of termites become more conspicuous, researchers with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are busy developing a biopesticide th...Fungus-farming termites descend from an African rain forest Eve
Agriculture is not unique to humans: some insect groups have also evolved this way of life. One such group is the fungus-farming termites, which cultivate fungi as food inside their nests. Such termites can be found in both rain forest and savannah habitats in the Old World tropics, from Africa to Asia. But as researchers report this week, a combination of DNA sequence analysis and computer model...Termites get the vibe on what tastes good
Researchers from CSIRO and UNSW@ADFA have shown that termites can tell what sort of material their food is made of, without having to actually touch it. The findings may lead to improvements in the control of feeding termites. By offering them a choice between normal wooden blocks and specially designed blocks made of wood and other materials, the researchers found that the termites always...