Happy Valentines Day!

Today, love is in the air and in places you might not expect, like a termite colony. Termites have quite a complex colony dynamic, but in most cases, the ones who sit at the top are a king and a queen pair. These primary heads are a monogamous pair of termites that mate for life, which can be for more than 10 years if conditions are right. When certain termites reach sexual maturity, a male and female will create a tandem pair and will leave together on a mating flight to start their own colony. They will then produce an equal number of male and female termites that will play different roles in the colony upkeep, similar to what is seen in social bees. The classic love story.

But like human, not everyone needs a relationship to love and have a family, which is also the case for some termites as well. There have been some documented colonies that have been female only. In this case, all the offspring will come from parthenogenesis, when eggs hatch from unfertilized eggs, and will all be female.

Both strategies can work for the colony to thrive. Love comes in all shapes and sizes and we want to celebrate it all, even if it comes in the shape of a termite.