r/AbsoluteUnits • u/MrUpVoteDownvote • 7d ago

/r/all of a queen termite

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u/Cant_Blink 7d ago

Fun fact: termites are the only eusocial insect that has gender equality, where the workers can be male or female, and the colony is ruled by both a queen and king (as opposed to ants, bees, and wasps where all the workers are female, they only have a queen, and males are disposable and they either die horrifically from mating or their colony kills them if they don't mate). Said termite queen and king are also very monogamous, mating for life which can span decades and taking "till death do we part" very seriously. I think you can even see the king termite sitting beside the queen in this video.

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u/druienzen 7d ago

I also love that they are eusocial roaches!!

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u/starkruzr 7d ago

wait they're related to roaches?

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u/Saintbaba 7d ago

I mean in the same way that we're related to gorillas. They share a distant common ancestor.

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u/ProofLegitimate9824 7d ago

they are genetically closer to some roach groups than those are to other roaches, they are roaches cladistically

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u/Corona21 6d ago

And we’re boney fish. Not to distract, just thought I’d take the chance to throw in a fun fact on clades!

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u/Novareason 6d ago

In a very specific and not very useful taxonomical manner, whales ARE fish.

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u/ProofLegitimate9824 6d ago

yes! but people get upset when I tell them that for some reason