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Termite 'nation' as big as Great Britain found in Brazil
From https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_356ebf89-9124-5af3-a1e5-354f52dc6df8.html
(November 2018)
Termite ‘nation’ as big as Great Britain found in Brazil
Mark Schleifstein, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune NOV 21, 2018 - 9:18 PM
(A) Core area (orange) of S. dirus mounds confirmed by ground visits. The MAXENT model predicted suitable area, and new mound sites confirmed by visits (orange triangle) or using satellite images (black triangles). Dated mounds indicated by red squares. Great Britain outline illustrates the extent of the mound fields. (B) Satellite image with the position of each mound indicated by a black dot, indicating an over-dispersed spatial distribution. (C) Sketch showing the mound structure and network of major tunnels (solid lines) and smaller vertical foraging tunnels (dashed lines). The images illustrate the various aspects of the sketch.
Current Biology magazine
Scientists have mapped a huge “nation” of more than 200 million connected termite mounds that stretches across 89,000 square miles of northeastern Brazil, with some of the 10-foot-high mounds -- still being used by termites today -- dating back as much as 4,000 years, according to a report in Current Biology earlier this month.
Hidden from view in a semiarid region of scrub forests are tens of millions of densely packed, cone-shaped earthen mounds that local residents call “murundus,” says the paper authored by scientists from Great Britain, Brazil, Nebraska and New York. The scientists say they based their conclusion of the size of the termite region on modeling that was confirmed by ground searches and the inspection of satellite images where the mounds were visible.
The mounds are not nests, but rather are part of a complex, interconnected network of underground tunnels, the researchers said, each built with about cubic yards of soil, the equivalent of a load carried by a medium-sized dump truck.
Mark Schleifstein, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune NOV 21, 2018 - 9:18 PM
(A) Core area (orange) of S. dirus mounds confirmed by ground visits. The MAXENT model predicted suitable area, and new mound sites confirmed by visits (orange triangle) or using satellite images (black triangles). Dated mounds indicated by red squares. Great Britain outline illustrates the extent of the mound fields. (B) Satellite image with the position of each mound indicated by a black dot, indicating an over-dispersed spatial distribution. (C) Sketch showing the mound structure and network of major tunnels (solid lines) and smaller vertical foraging tunnels (dashed lines). The images illustrate the various aspects of the sketch.
Current Biology magazine
Scientists have mapped a huge “nation” of more than 200 million connected termite mounds that stretches across 89,000 square miles of northeastern Brazil, with some of the 10-foot-high mounds -- still being used by termites today -- dating back as much as 4,000 years, according to a report in Current Biology earlier this month.
Hidden from view in a semiarid region of scrub forests are tens of millions of densely packed, cone-shaped earthen mounds that local residents call “murundus,” says the paper authored by scientists from Great Britain, Brazil, Nebraska and New York. The scientists say they based their conclusion of the size of the termite region on modeling that was confirmed by ground searches and the inspection of satellite images where the mounds were visible.
The mounds are not nests, but rather are part of a complex, interconnected network of underground tunnels, the researchers said, each built with about cubic yards of soil, the equivalent of a load carried by a medium-sized dump truck.
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