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Termite Metamorphosis

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A termite’s life may appear simple, but it is truly a complex web of life cycle stages, jobs, and possibilities. Starting from egg, termites go through metamorphosis, the changes that the majority of inspects experience throughout their life. Two predominately seen types of metamorphosis are holometabolous development and hemimetabolous development. These are more commonly referred to as complete and incomplete metamorphosis. Complete metamorphosis, occurring in ants, butterflies, and ladybugs, consist of four life cycle stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Incomplete metamorphosis is experienced by crickets, grasshoppers, and our little friends, termites. This variation of metamorphosis consists of three life cycle stages: egg, nymph, and adult. To further …show more content…
Termites, however, have to use acetogenesis to break down cellulose into usable energy. The largest difference between these two methods of gaining energy is who does the breaking down of substances. In aerobic cellular respiration, it is the cell of the organism itself that breaks down the carbohydrates. In the case of acetogenesis, the cellulose is broken down through a symbiotic relation between termites and the bacteria in their guts. The termite cannot survive without the bacteria just as the bacteria cannot survive without the termite. The termite consumes the wood. When the wood reaches the intestinal gut, the eukaryotic protozoan breaks it down. It releases hydrogen while doing so which is then consumed by the deltaproteobacteria. This finishes the breaking down of the wood into a nutritious meal for the termite. The termite, protozoan, and bacteria all depend upon each other for survival thus finishing acetogenesis and creating the symbiotic relation. Although these termites are small in size, the complexity of their lives is

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