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The discovery of a huge network of more than 200 million termite mounds, some of which are around 4,000 years old, amounts to finding an "unknown world wonder," according to the team's principal investigator, who said: 39, discovery.
"The first time I was there, it's amazing, you can not believe what you're looking at," said Stephen Martin, social entomologist and professor at the University of Salford at United Kingdom.
The mounds were discovered in an isolated forest in northeastern Brazil, extending over an area the size of Britain, and can be seen from the space.
They all measure about 10 feet tall, 20 feet wide at the base and are spaced 30 to 40 feet apart. The team published its findings this month in the journal Current Biology.
The remoteness of the area has allowed termites to continue to be built without human interference, Martin said. (Submitted by Stephen Martin)
"What's strange is that they're really regularly spaced out, like there's a big plan," Martin said. The flow hostess Laura Lynch.
Each soil mound contains a single vertical tree that allows termites to move between the surface and the underground network of tunnels. When Martin's team began digging these tunnels, she struck "junction after junction".
"From time to time, we found galleries in which were dried leaves, which are their food, or sometimes … their young termites, their babies who are raised."
Leaf picking and storage is the main reason why termites have built such a network, he said. The leaves grow only when it rains, about a month a year, and termites must collect as much food as possible during this short time.
"If you can imagine in Canada, if all grocery stores are only open for one week a year, those with the fastest cars and the best access to major highways will be able to get more food in very little time. time, "he said.
A termite queen on the left and a termite king exposed at the Chongqing Termite Control Institute, May 16, 2007, in Chongqing Municipality, China. (China Photos / Getty Images)
Martin thinks that termites have been able to build such a network because of the remoteness of the area.
The climate and soil make it difficult to grow in this region, he said, which keeps humans away and lets insects persist.
"These are actually the oldest living structures … made by insects and still occupied today, around 4,000 years ago."
Similar mounds have been discovered in South Africa and North America, he added, but only in fossilized form.
This network, however, is still inhabited, allowing the Martin team to study how these structures are built and how termites manage to create such complex patterns over large areas.
What can humans learn from termites?
While most people may think that termites to decompose wood are just architects of destruction, some scientists argue that we could learn a lot from them.
They could even have the secret to produce efficient biofuels, said Lisa Margonelli, science journalist and author of Underbug: An obsessive tale of termites and technology.
Their guts are "basically like a molecular demolition project," she told Lynch.
"A piece of cellulose is coming in, and they're just starting to pull out parts of it and destroy it, one molecule at a time, and turn it into hydrogen and methane," she said.
Scientists have tried to mimic this process to produce biofuel, but so far it has proved too complicated to replicate.
The extent of the network was discovered only when sections of the forest were cleared. (Submitted by Stephen Martin)
They are also intrigued by earth mounds and by the way termites – many varieties of which are blind – build them.
When termites develop, "each termite receives few signals from other termites," she said.
"It drops a ball of earth, then when 100 million other earth balls are down, you suddenly have a mound."
Lisa Margonelli examines what we can learn from termites in her book Underbug: An obsessive tale of termites and technology. (Submitted by Lisa Margonelli, Oneworld Publications)
Robotics are interested in this "collaboration without a leader", she said, and the possibility that it is a model for programming robots capable of building entire buildings without any human supervision.
Even the buildings in which we live and work could learn from termites, Margonelli explained.
"There are many kinds of termite mounds, some of them keep termites cool during the day and a little warmer at night," she said.
I think there is a lot to like termites.– Lisa Margonelli
"Some of them keep them drier during the rainy season and wetter during the dry season."
Human buildings depend on air conditioning and are often tightly closed, she said. We could learn from these "passive ventilation systems, that termites have evolved, to be more comfortable".
The mounds extend for hundreds of kilometers, Martin said. (Submitted by Stephen Martin)
Margonelli said that until about 10 years ago, termite research was mainly funded by extermination companies.
"But I think there is a lot to like termites." she told Lynch.
Written by Padraig Moran. Produced by Alison Masemann, Danielle Carr and Cameron Perrier of The Current & # 39; s.
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