Termites are also known by the name of white ants, due to their great morphological resemblance to the ant, but genetically they are not related since ants belong to the genus Hymenoptera, for their part the termites are grouped in the a suborder of the Isoptera belonging to the order of the Blattodea. They are generally social insects and base their diet on materials with a high cellulose content such as wood.
Its scientific name is Isoptera, which means "equal wings", this name is due to the fact that when they reach maturity they develop 4 wings with similar sizes, most of them are from tropical climates, however there are some species that are found in climates temperate, in total there are more than 3000 species of termite registered where 6 of these species were introduced in ecosystems different from yours, becoming pests for society, termites represent approximately 10% of the total biomass on Earth.
In continents such as Africa, Australia and South America, they are found in large numbers, especially tropical forests, a large number of their species build their colonies in the form of small lumps of earth, so they lead a life underground, in Ecosystems can fulfill fertilizing functions, this is because when they build their colonies, they tend to remove large amounts of material in hard soils and where there was very little life in terms of plants, thus facilitating plant growth., shrubs and even small trees.
Their main food is cellulose, however they do not have the ability to digest them by themselves, that is why they require the intervention of protozoa, which are living in the digestive system of worker termites, they are responsible for degrading the cellulose being able the termite to take advantage of the nutrients of the same one.
In urban places the appearance of these insects is very annoying, this is because they tend to penetrate the different artifacts made of wood to feed on them, sometimes causing serious damage to the infrastructure of houses, furniture, pictures, etc.
