Termites eat non-stop - 24 hours a day, seven days a week.The queen of a certain termite species can lay up to 40,000 eggs per day.When forming a new colony, flying male and female "swarmer" termites break off their wings, enter wood through a crack or hole, mate and begin feeding of some thirty or so insect orders, termites are the only one in which all species are categorized as highly social or "eusocial".
Termites have the most uniform nomenclature of all living orders, all but six genera of the 283 genera in the order end in -termes.
Winged termites, called alates, are the "milk of tropical forests". They provide food for more amphibians, reptiles, birds, and ground foraging mammals than any other group of insects.No one knows exactly how long termite queens live, but many are known to live at least ten years and records of some long lived mounds suggest a longevity of over 40 years.
Other insects have long lived immature stages but termites appear to have the longest lived adult reproductive lives.Subterranean termites spend winters underground.Termites burrow into wood to obtain food.Given enough time, termites will feed until nothing is left of the wood but a shell.Formosan queens can produce up to 1,000 eggs a day.