All Hail the King (of the Termites)

Termites can’t see those differences, as they live in the dark. But Dr. Vargo’s lab has shown that workers and soldiers can recognize their sovereigns by smell. When another termite is near a queen or a king, it shakes its body, perhaps alerting others that they’re in the presence of royalty.

And although they don’t have a castle, Dr. Thorne said, “They do have a special royal cell with a little chamber that’s primarily the queen and king.” Deep within the nest and with thicker walls, this chamber protects the queen and the king if, say, an anteater takes a swipe.

As the royals don’t leave their chamber, workers give them regurgitated food from their own mouths. Other colony-living insects spike their mouth-to-mouth meals with chemicals for communication, Dr. Vargo said. It’s possible that termites do the same thing. For now, though, the makeup of these termite meals is as mysterious as the “secret mixture of oils” with which Charles III will be anointed, using the centuries-old coronation spoon.

The termite king, performing his marital duties, helps his mate produce as many as 15,000 eggs each day. When the king or the queen eventually dies, a replacement will come from among these heirs and many, many spares. “The reproductive throne is inherited by one or more of their offspring,” Dr. Thorne said.

In rags-to-riches style, the first termites evolved from cockroaches. Why they became so cooperative is a bit of a puzzle. Ants, bees and wasps have a genetic system that makes the females in a family more closely related than usual; this may be part of why queen-led colonies evolved several times in these insects. But a termite colony is no more related than a human family (at least until the inbreeding starts). Whatever led them to evolve coed, cooperative societies, Dr. Vargo said, it happened only once in history.

Today they have expanded into about 2,600 highly cooperative species. “Termites are amazing, and super important in their native habitats for decomposition and recycling of nutrients,” Dr. Thorne said. But our interactions with those societies are mostly negative since, she said, “We build our houses out of termite food.”

The termite monarchy also offers a window into the science of longevity. Like ant, bee or wasp queens, termite royals can live substantially longer than their subjects. Workers may live a few months, while termite royals have survived 20 years in laboratories.