Flying Termites Take a Dangerous Journey to a New Life

From Deep Look

Flying Termites Take a Dangerous Journey to a New Life
5 min3rd4th5th6thScience
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Summary

Once a year, winged termites pour out of their nests to start colonies of their own. Deep Look follows these fragile fliers through a risky journey that is one stage in the long life cycle of a termite.

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Teaching resources

Discussion questions

Talk about it

Termites hatch, grow, and at one stage some sprout wings and fly off to start new colonies. Most won't survive the trip, but the few that do begin the cycle again -- a clear example of a life cycle with different stages.

  1. What stage of the termite life cycle happens when they grow wings?
  2. Why is the flight such a dangerous part of their life cycle?
  3. How does this journey help start the cycle over again?

Quick work-a-long

Vocabulary: life cycle, stage, colony, survive.

Try it: Draw the termite life cycle as a circle: egg, growing, winged flight, new nest. Write one sentence about the winged stage.