Researchers have unveiled the intricate secret behind the remarkable construction prowess of termites, shedding light on how these tiny architects erect their towering nests with precision and efficiency.

Termites, often hailed as nature's engineers, are renowned for their ability to construct colossal nests reaching meters in height, complete with intricate galleries facilitating communication and natural ventilation systems.

Using laboratory experiments conducted on coptotermes gestroi termites, researchers created artificial arenas with varying structures and meticulously tracked the insects' building behaviour through video surveillance.

To their astonishment, they discovered that termites exhibited a remarkable preference for depositing building material at specific locations, particularly at the tips of pillars and corners of walls.

This footage was filmed and produced 10 April 2024.

Researchers have unveiled the intricate secret behind the remarkable construction prowess of termites, shedding light on how these tiny architects erect their towering nests with precision and efficiency.

Termites, often hailed as nature's engineers, are renowned for their ability to construct colossal nests reaching meters in height, complete with intricate galleries facilitating communication and natural ventilation systems.

Using laboratory experiments conducted on Coptotermes gestroi termites, researchers created artificial arenas with varying structures and meticulously tracked the insects' building behavior through video surveillance. To their astonishment, they discovered that termites exhibited a remarkable preference for depositing building material at specific locations, particularly at the tips of pillars and corners of walls.

The key revelation came when researchers impregnated the clay substrate with a saline solution, which, upon evaporation, left behind tiny salt crystals marking regions of high humidity. These regions coincided precisely with the areas where termites had chosen to build, indicating a direct correlation between humidity gradients and termite construction activity.

The findings highlight termites' extraordinary sensitivity to humidity concentrations, a crucial survival trait for these moisture-dependent insects. By responding to localized humidity gradients, termites effectively orchestrate the construction of complex nests without the need for elaborate communication systems or pheromone trails.

"What really surprised us was to discover that termites use such a simple solution to a very complex problem," remarks Perna. "In our experiments, nest complexity emerges from just one simple mechanism: termites only need to add pellets of material depending on the local humidity, but the pellets that they add in turn change all the pattern of evaporation and humidity, inducing other termites to build at a different location, and so on, until very complex structures are produced."

[Credit: Giulio Facchini]