The termite queen may be the mother who makes the ultimate sacrifice for her swarms of children. Isolated in an earthen capsule, she lays more than a quarter-billion eggs in her lifetime. On the ...

Forget the bows and curtsies. Worker termites shake in the presence of their queens and kings. New research explains how these workers smell a royal presence.

The termite queen may be the mother who makes the ultimate sacrifice for her swarms of children. Isolated in an earthen capsule, she lays more than a quarter-billion eggs in her lifetime. On the ...

A termite queen (left), which is about 2 inches long, and a termite king (right), which is about a third of an inch long. The queen continually produces eggs out of its massive abdomen.

Non-monogamy and colony inheritance are the leading causes of conflict among termites, but these social cockroaches prove you ...

Subterranean termite colonies are founded by a single king and queen. However, the king generally outlives the queen, and an optimal number of secondary termite queens must be produced to meet the ...

Termite queens depend on a gene called Neofem2 to rule over their colonies. Silence it, and the happy workers start a war of succession, headbutting each other to established dominance.

When a founding termite queen dies, she leaves behind a dynasty of clones that mate with the same original king to create more workers. It preserves her genetic legacy while avoiding the risk of ...

Termite Queens Are Doin' It For Themselves Discover how the termite queen uses asexual reproduction to ensure genetic success in the colony without inbreeding.

Termite colonies are families - millions of individual workers all descended from one king and one queen. But the colony itself tends to outlast this initial royal couple. When they die, new kings and ...

Researchers have discovered that king and queen dampwood termites can grow the size of their brains, in particular, the optic lobe, before they leave the nests.

In a bizarre twist of nature, termite workers engage in excessive grooming behavior that can ultimately kill their own queen. Discover the strange balance between loyalty and lethal hygiene in ...