Termite nest. Close-up of a spiral staircase in a nest that was built by Apicotermes termites. These are social insects found in Africa. Social insect

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Termite nest. Close-up of a spiral staircase in a nest that was built by Apicotermes termites. These are social insects found in Africa. Social insects form a colony of numerous individuals that can display collective behaviour, like building complex nest structures. These horizontal layers are connected by spiral staircases (one partially seen at centre in this sectioned view). There are also ventilating air shafts leading to the surface of the nest. The nest is constructed from soil and woody material. Termite colonies consist of a king and queen and numerous worker termites. For a view of the internal and external structures of a nest, see image Z290/027.

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Size: 3416px × 5138px
Photo credit: © PASCAL GOETGHELUCK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: africa, african, animal, apicotermes, architecture, behaviour, building, close-, collective, construction, cross-section, engineering, eusocial, insect, insecta, internal, invertebrate, invertebrates, mound, mud, nature, nest, section, sectioned, social, soil, stair, staircase, staircases, stairs, structural, structure, termite, termites, wildlife, wood, zoology