Puerto Rican Termite Fangs
Mar 07, 2015 • 3:23 PM UTC
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140x Magnification
Microorganisms
elearlybird
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Under the watch of two American Oystercatcher birds Mike Eisen and I snorkeled the leeward side of a small island off the coast of another small island called Vieques off the coast of another small island called Puerto Rico. We already came across some elegant spotted eagle rays, a small green sea turtle, and an American biologist called Craig Mello by the time Manu Prakash paddled up in a sea kayak. It was time to collect some samples for a team Foldscope session. (snorkeling photos by Mike Eisen)
The next day we assembled outside of the meeting hall to see what Manu and Mike had collected in tide pools and insect traps. Claude Desplan joined the crew and pretty soon it was time to investigate a termite caught and prepared by Mike as a live mount in the Foldscope. The termite was mounted to see its underside and explore near its mouth parts. What we saw next was very surprising. (photos by Manu Prakash)
The termite was well positioned and appeared more transparent than expected making muscle striations and tracheal tubes very clear to see. Moving to investigate near the mouth, the termite started chewing, which revealed several sets of fang-like mandibles! As Claude pointed out the termite can eat your house and needs some heavy equipment to do the job. How many sets of fangs does this termite have? Two, Three, Four? Amazing. To my eye, some of the mandible mouth parts look like crab claws.
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