HOW DO TERMITES DIGEST WOOD?

Most insects eat the green and living parts of plants the stems or leaves. But termites eat wood, tunneling through tree trunks and buildings as they construct their homes. Wood is mostly dead cells, with little nutritive value, and its components–cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin–resist digestion. For that reason termites have special ways to digest wood. The higher and lower orders of termites solve the same problem in different ways.

Using fungi as digesters

Many of the higher-order termites raise fungi to help them get nutrition from wood. Wood that the termites eat is poorly digested, and much wood is excreted almost intact in their droppings. But these termites use their droppings as food for the fungi that they raise. As the fungi grow, they further break down the wood. Then the termites reconsume their own droppings, together with some of the fungi, and get nourishment from both.

Microbes that help digest wood

Lower-order termites rely on microbes called protozoa that live in the termites' intestines and help them digest wood. The protozoa break down the wood further, turnip it into nutrients the termites can absorb. If the microbes in a termite body die, the termite will die too.

How Do Termites digest Wood

However termites really do benefit from celulose inside wood, the actual termites don't truly process the wood. All things considered, there are microorganisms living inside the termite's stomach related framework called protozoa. These protozoa really separate the wood inside the termite, delivering side-effects that the two creatures can process.

Wood Cellulose

Cellulose, the most widely recognized normally happening compound on the planet, is the natural substance which gives design to plants. Cellulose is made of sugar particles connected together to shape a chain-like example. Due to its cosmetics, cellulose is an incredibly strong compound and along these lines, it is challenging to process. Wood is comprised of generally cellulose, and this is what the future holds "feed" on wood. There are relatively few living beings on the planet that produce the chemicals prepared to do appropriately separating cellulose into an absorbable substance. The protozoa creatures inside the termites stomach related framework truly do have the catalysts important to separate cellulose and by separating the wood into edible results, the termites can live off of the wood without really processing it themselves.

Protozoa

The protozoa inside the termite's stomach related framework give the compounds which can separate the wood. The actual termites don't have such proteins in their body; they should depend on the microorganisms in their stomach to give it to them. The protozoa separate the wood cellulose into straightforward sugars which the two living beings can process. At the point when the protozoa digest the wood cellulose, they discharge acidic corrosive and different acids that the host termite can utilize.

Protozoa/Termite Cycle

Because of advancement, termites started to create an organic liquid containing the microorganisms known as protozoa a long period of time back. Termites discharge this fluid when they poo. In the wake of being conceived, the termite hatchlings consume the grown-up termites' defecation and they, thus, ingest the protozoa which then, at that point, live inside their stomach related frameworks. Whenever termites shed, shedding their exoskeleton to develop, they lose the protozoa inside their stomach related framework. To get more protozoa, which they need to get by, the termites ingest the dung of another termite, subsequently once again introducing protozoa to their bodies to support absorption.

Mutualism

Mutualism is a particular type of harmonious relationship where two separate life forms help each other to make due. George Poinar, a logical specialist at Oregon State College, found a termite installed in golden that is roughly 100 million years of age. The termite's mid-region is penetrated and protozoa should be visible pouring out of the injured mid-region. Poinar considered this the "most seasoned illustration of mutualism" on the planet and clarified the termite/protozoa relationship saying, "Protozoa would die outside of the termite, and the termite would starve in the event that it didn't have these protozoa to support assimilation. For this situation they rely upon one another for endurance"

Other wood-eating insects

Various insects besides termites eat wood. Some depend, as the lower-order termites do, on microbes in their bodies, but some use other methods. For example most insect larvae that eat wood also eat the molds or fungi growing on a tree. Scientists believe that the fungi's digestive enzymes assist the insect in digestion. Some insects do not eat wood directly but raise fungi on the wood as a food source. Such fungi farmers use Wood's nutrients indirectly by eating the fungi.