About 3,000 species of social insects that eat decaying plant matter, mostly wood, leaf litter and humus. Though called “white ants”, they are highly specialised cockroaches. A colony is founded by a king and queen that mate for life.
Quick answers
What is it?Insect
Carnivore?No, herbivore
Dangerous?No
Domesticated?No
Awake when?Day & night
Hibernates?No
Kept as a pet?No
Do people eat it?In places
Eaten in some cultures; winged alates are high in fat and protein, and queens are regarded as a delicacy.
At a glance
Found inWorldwide
ColoursWhite, Brown
SizeTiny
LengthMostly 4–15 mm; Macrotermes queens up to 15 cm
Legs6
Covered inExoskeleton
Lives incolonies
Lives for1–2 years
Can flyOnly some
Lays eggs
In the wild
- Where it lives
- Every continent except Antarctica; about 1,000 species live in Africa.
- What it eats
- Decaying plant material: wood, leaf litter and soil humus.
Did you know
Builds air-conditioned mounds taller than a giraffe, and the queen can live 50 years.
About 1.1 million active termite mounds stand in the northern Kruger National Park alone.
Termites and ants are about 1% of insect species but more than half of all insect biomass.
Often confused with
- Ant
Termites live in colonies too, but they’re related to cockroaches, not ants.
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