The Secret Life of Insects: The Termite King

Yesterday I received as a gift this lovely, large format, hardbound book, The Secret Life of Insects (P. Passarin D'Entreves and M. Zunino, Orbis, 1976). With chapter headings such as Queen of the termites and The marauding locusts, it's certain to delight us. Let's have a look within for a small morsel, easy to swallow, to satiate us for the time being. How about the males of another truly social insect, like the Honeybees, but those of an order that treats them more mercifully after their nuptial duties are complete? I give you the Termite King:

Just as the queen is the only sexually active female member of the termite community, so the king is the only male capable of fertilizing her. In appearance, the king closely resembles the queen--at least before her abdomen expands to its enormous size.

The exclusive role of the king in the nest is to provide the queen with the sperms that she needs to fertilize her eggs. Copulation may take place only once in the couple's life, or several times, depending on the species. If copulation occurs only once, then the king will have completed his duties and so can spend the rest of his days in total idleness, waited on hand and foot by his attendants. In other cases, he may have to fertilize the queen as often as once a month. Such a degree of activity may well be necessary when the queen is laying vast numbers of eggs every day and needing vast numbers of sperms to fertilize them. The king lives his whole life in the royal apartment, by the queen's side, and is fed on the same food as her, though in much smaller amounts.

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This book also offers a wealth of sumptuous color photographs, which I will scan and post here as time and inclination allow.