Hodotermes

Two species, both dry savannah specialists. H. mossmabicus appears to have an effective limit needing less than 750 mm of rain. Does not normally nest on sand, but can do so when gravel or other harder substrates is introduced by human activity, especially road building. Coaton & Sheasby (1975) discuss detailed distribution patterns of H. mossambicus and from these postulate that climate is more important than soil in influencing distribution patterns.

Basically dry grass eaters, showing no apparent choice between grasses in the areas they forage (Duncan & Hewitt, 1989) .

Unlike Microhodotermes  and Anacanthotermes, Hodotermes does not build hard, conical  mounds on the soil surface. However, they do have simple or multi-peaked soil dumps with an internal tunnel system allowing termites to bring soil and other debris to the top of the dumps.

Tunnel system with foraging ports, blocked up with mud after use (c.f. Anacanthotermes)

Characteristic damage = “denuded veld fringed by vegetation in which grass stalks have been cut off horizontally leaving stubs with typical fine serrated edges”. Seem to prefer dry to green plant material (Nel et al., 1970 report colonies dying when feed exclusively green plant material), but Coaton & Sheasby (1975) disagree giving examples of the cutting of green plant material in various parts of southern Africa. The explanation given by Coaton & Sheasby (1975) is that material must be dried (‘cured’) in storage chambers before it is edible to the termites.

Polycalic hive structure , present at 85-96 per hectare (Hartwig, 1963, 1965). Hives variable but up to 61 cm in diameter. Avergae distance underground = 1.37 m (max 6.7 m). Made up of fragile carton shelving occupying the entire hive cavity. Large passages (25-75 mm in diameter). Coaton & Sheasby (1972) record H. mossambicus in Namibia as having colonies with one to three nursery hives, with a variable number of secondary hives which contain only workers and soldiers.

A network of narrower (c. 12 mm diameter)tunnels link the hives to (a) the soil dumps, (b) foraging ports, and (c) underground food storage chambers. These storage chambers are flattened structures generally about 30 cm below the soil surface, although they can be deeper.

Foraging areas contract in the summer and expand in the winter (Coaton, 1958), and generally foraging area increases with a reduction in available food sources.

In southern Africa, H. mossambicus generally forages at night, except during winter months when it is too cold and foraging is by day. However, some light source (sun or moon) seems advantageous for orientation of the termites (they are unusual among termites in having fully functional compound eyes, although the eyes have poor spatial resolving power and cannot recognise landmarks),  although under overcast or dark conditions pheomone-controlled trail-following behaviour appears to occur (Leuthold, 1973). However, optical orientation is more precise than phermonal orientation (Leuthold, 1976). The pheromone is produced by the sternal gland, but there also seems to be an effect of individual memory of the distance between the foraging site and the exit hole.

Heidecker & Leuthold (1984) describe the different trail making behaviour of the workers in the light and dark. In the light workers leaving the pheromone-marked exit holes move in a series of unmarked loops ranging further and further out until they discover a source of food. They then use visual cues to return to the exit hole, marking the trail as they go. This marked trail then acts as a path to the food source for other workers. In the dark, however, marked random exploratory loops are made that always return to the exit hole. When a food source is found visual cues cannot be used to return to the exit hole, so marked exploratory loops are made until the hole is discovered. This makes two pheromone-marked fields, and other food finders repeatedly move from one field to the other eventually concentrating a trail from the hole to the food source that can act as the foraging path. .

During extremely hot periods extreme soil temperatures may restrict foraging parties to collecting dry litter already lying on the surface soil (Nel 1970) - temperatures on the soil surface may be as high as 40° C. Nel (1970) gives details of the size and weight of grass stems cut by termites.  Workers will cut grasses and shrubs, but grasses are the preferred foodstuff (Nel & Hewitt, 1969).  Minor workers appear to specialise in cutting the grass, while major workers carry it away (Duncan & Hewitt, 1989). In laboratory colonies dry litter was collecetd before grass tussocks were cut down to a height of c. 3 cm (Duncan & Hewitt, 1989).

Adult workers are highly aggressive to workers form other colonies - in field experiments alien workers were killed in about 30 seconds by groups of twenty workers from the same colony collected from the vicinity of a foraging hole (Nel, 1968).

H. mossambicus workers show a form of temporal polyethism. Final instar larvae are the only functional caste to feed on plant material, and they are responsible for moving plant material about within the nest, feeding and caring for younger larvae, adult workers and the reproductives. In contrast, adult workers forage on the surface, and assist in nest repair and construction, but are unable to persist on a diet of foraged plant material alone in the absence of final instar larvae (Nel et al., 1969). This differentiation also applies at a physiological level (e.g. in salivary gland function, (Mednikova, 1991).

Adult workers are very highly pigmented in comparison with other termites, and Nel & Hewitt (1969) show that this gives protection against solar radiation when foraging on the soil surface.

Swarming occurs after the start of the main rains (usually in November/December). Swarming occurs usually between 16:00 - 20:00. Pairing does seem to occur, unlike the behaviour reported in Anacanthotermes.

Laboratory development of colonies is discussed in Nel & Duncan (1988). After pair formation, minor workers appeared after 39 days, the first soldier after 64 days and the first major worker after 104 days. Larvae began to dig a tunnel up to the surface before they were fully pigmented, and as soon as the tunnel was completed the worker began to forage. This occurred roughly two months after the initiation of the colony.

Hewitt et al. (1972) show that H. mossambicus alates show different types of behaviour according to whether they are paired or in groups. Alates in groups are non-aggressive, do not drink large amounts of water, do not oviposit, and show high flight muscle mitochondrial activity, even when the wings have been lost. Paired alates, however, show aggressive behaviour to conspecifics, drink large quantities of water, oviposit, and show greatly reduced flight muscle mitochondrial activity. Paired alates remove the top of each other's antennae, and this may reduce group behaviour which appears to be, in part, due to antennal grooming behaviour (Hewitt et al., 1972). However, reproductives that had their entire antennae removed were unable to form pairs, and so sensory structures at the base of the antennae are probably needed to ensure pair bonding is successful. This repertoire of behaviours may not. of course, be unique to Hodotermes as the same pressures to ensure appropriate behaviour before flighting (tolerance of fellow alates in colonies), and after pairing (defence of new colony centres) will apply to most if not all termite species.

Some evidence that H. mossambicus colonise bare ground more effectively than ground with abundant vegetation cover, such as where overgrazing has occurred.

Predators include the aardvark, aardwolf (Williams et al., 1997), mongoose, bat-eared fox (Nel & Mackie, 1990), starlings, hornbills, plovers and several species of game birds (Kok & Earle, 1990), as well as specialist predatory spiders (Jocque & Dippenaarschoeman, 1992) . Birds regularly scatter spoil dumps to reveal the termites below, and game birds will dig 15cm or more into the sand beneath dumps to get at the termites (Coaton & Sheasby, 1975).  Ants, spiders, robber flies, mantids  and predacious beetles often attack foraging columns, and may be important limiting factors on damage done by the termites (Nel, 1970).

Termitophiles associated with H. mossambicus are listed in Coaton & Sheasby (1975).