You searched for: “isoptera
Isoptera
Termites, white ants; order of small social insects that construct nests on or in hollow trees, rotten wood, or the ground, which vary in size from a few centimeters with less than a hundred individuals to huge earth mounds measuring several meters with millions of colony members.

Their caste structure includes morphologically distinct reproductives, soldiers, and workers; adults (imagos) possess two pairs of long wings.

Secondary reproductives (neotenics) are typically blind, wingless and unpigmented; soldiers are usually blind, sterile and wingless with large heads and strong jaws; workers are mostly sterile and blind, with soft white cuticle (white ants).

The name of the termites' order is derived from their having equal wings.

This entry is located in the following unit: isopter- (page 1)