Termite Basics 101

What are termites?
Termites are eusocial cockroaches. They are most closely related to wood roaches.

Why do termites don't look like cockroaches?
The queen/king do, all other termite castes are either very neotenic or straight up juveniles. So child labour.

Are termites like ants?
No and yes. They are comparable to ants in their eusocial behaviour. Not much else.

Why are termites not like ants?
1. They undergo incomplete metamorphosis. They start off as miniature versions of themselves and keep molting while ants start off as larvae, molt into a pupae and eclose as an adult.

2. All modern ants belong to one family, with a multitude of subfamilies. Termites have 9 families, and a multitude of subfamilies.

3. Termites are much more dependent on nest mates (as a rule there can be no less than 2 termites in order for them to survive)

4. Termites have a lot more distinct castes.

So are baby termites called nymphs then?
The greatest prank of the century was when Isopterists (people who study termites) decided that termite nymphs will actually be called larvae, but the nymphs that will molt into alates are to still be called nymphs.

How many castes do termites have then and what are they?
Technically 11 in total. The categories of importance are: worker, soldier and reproductives.

Reproduction
Why did you refer to them as categories, why 'reproductive' and not queen or king?

The notion of king and queen termites ruling for eternity? yeah throw that out.

Ok so here is where it gets somewhat really complicated really fast, remember the caste number mentioned above? Most of those are reproductives, in other words 'termites have multiple reproductive castes'. A reproductive simply refers to any termite capable of reproduction.

The main castes of note are: 'Imago': These are the winged, swarming, cockroach looking adults. Alates if you will 'Brachypterous neotenic': A reproductive that is descended from nymphs and bears tiny wings 'Apterous neotenic': A reproductive with no wings 'Tertiary neotenic': A reproductive from the worker caste

More can be found in the Glossary Summary section.

What is a primary reproductive and secondary reproductive?
Primary reproductives (also known as the founding pair) are the founders of the colony. They are the alates that swarmed and started their own colony. Secondary reproductives are any reproductives of the colony that arrive after the primaries, they can be neotenics or imagoes.