Chien C. Lee

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  • Magnetic termite mounds (Amitermes laurensis), aligned to avoid the intense heat of the summer sun. Queensland, Australia.
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  • Nasutiform termite solders (Hospitalitermes nigriantennalis) defend a column of workers with chemical weaponry, each is capable of squirting a noxious fluid from the gland on its head. Batang Ai National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Often mistaken for a trail of marauding ants, the lichen-feeding Processional Termites (Hospitalitermes spp.) are quite unlike most of their kin not only in the fact that they don't eat wood, but they also forage in the open, often during daylight. Their wide columns of workers can form an impressive sight as they flow like a stream over a hundred meters in the Bornean rainforest, returning with balls of lichen they have scraped from the bark of branches high in the canopy. How can they afford to venture out in the open whereas most other termites are furtive creatures of darkness and secrecy? The answer lies with their defense: they devote as much as 30% of their ranks to soldiers, which are equipped with chemical-squirting nozzles on their heads to repel ants, their prime enemy. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Scarcely larger than your thumb, the Buff-faced Pygmy Parrot (Micropsitta pusio) is the world’s smallest parrot. Here, a mated pair peer out from their nest hole that they have excavated in an arboreal termite mound within the lowland rainforest of western New Guinea. Papua, Indonesia.
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  • In one of the most ancient instances of monoculture, Macrotermes termites cultivate gardens of Termitomyces fungus as a form of external digestion, enabling the break down plant lignin for their consumption. Here, soldiers and nymphs of M. gilvus attend their fungus comb, found deep within their subterranean nest. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • In one of the most ancient instances of monoculture, Macrotermes termites cultivate gardens of Termitomyces fungus as a form of external digestion, enabling the break down plant lignin for their consumption. Here, soldiers and nymphs of M. gilvus attend their fungus comb, found deep within their subterranean nest. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Soldiers termites (Longipeditermes longipes) position themselves aside a column of workers, ready for defense.  They are able to squirt a noxious secretion from the snout-like projection on their head, which serves as an effective chemical deterrent for ants and other predators. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • A column of worker termites transport portions of masticated leaves back to the colony.  This species (Longipeditermes longipes) plays an important role in the recycling of leaf litter on the rainforest floor. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Usambiro Barbet (Trachyphonus darnaudii usambiro), carrying termites back to nest. Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.
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  • Schedorhinotermes sp. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Terrmite mounds in Karijini National Park, Western Australia.
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  • Terrmite mounds in Karijini National Park, Western Australia.
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  • A Sunda Pangolin (Manis javanica) forages at night for ant and termite nests, using its keen sense of smell to locate a nest. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • The highly specialized antennae of many beetles can reveal much about each species’ particular lifestyle. Here, a Malayan Giant Click Beetle (Oxynopterus audouini) shows off his impressive comb-like antennae, a feature only males possess and which are used to increase their ability to detect the faint pheromones of females in the dense vegetation of the rainforest. Reaching lengths of over 6cm, this is one of the world’s largest species of click beetles (family Elateridae), and is known for having larvae which predate on termites. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • A column of nomadic Asian army ants (Aenictus laeviceps) carry their developing larvae to a new temporary nesting site. Ants of the genus Aenictus are specialized predators on other social insects, including wasps, bees, termites, and other ant species. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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