From so simple a beginning

Evolution and Biodiversity

Category: building

Smart building

1 December 2024 /

Nest mound of Globitermes sulphureus provides a stable indoor climate

Queen of Globitermes sulphureus in a nest that always has an agreeable high humidity level.

Periods of severe drought, periods of heavy rain: a nest mound of the termite Globitermes sulphureus withstands it all. That is thanks to its three-layered structure, Chun-I Chiu and colleagues show.

The savannahs of Thailand are bone dry in winter while the wet summer season brings an extreme amount of rain: a challenging climate. But the termite Globitermes sulphureus prospers, thanks to nest mounds that protect the colonies in the underground nests beneath them. The mounds persist, the animals neither desiccate nor drown, but always enjoy a pleasantly high humidity level in their nest. This has to do with a clever piece of architecture, Chun-I Chiu and colleagues conclude from various measurements.

Like ants, termites live in large colonies, but they are not related to ants; they are related to cockroaches. A termite colony has a king and queen that produce offspring, and workers and soldiers of both male and female sexes. The queen, that has to produce a huge amount of eggs, is much larger than the other termites.

Stability

The mound above a nest of Globitermes sulphureus may look a little plump, but it is a complex structure. It consists of three layers each of which contributes in its own way to the stability of the mound and to the favourable internal climate in the nest.

The thin outer layer consists of plate-like elements of hard material. The animals make it from sand or soil particles, hence it has the same colour as the soil on which it stands. This layer prevents moisture from escaping from the nest, which is very important during dry periods. Underneath this layer, there is a thicker middle layer of irregularly shaped, stuck-together pieces with cavities in between that are also made of soil particles. This layer is waterproof and can withstand pressure, for example when raindrops hit it. It makes the mound robust.

The inside of the mound, the third layer, clearly differs from the outer layer and the middle layer. It is filled with rounded, smooth pellets in which a lot of fibrous organic material is incorporated, such as cellulose from plant remains. This layer is redder in colour than the other two, and it is the most porous one. Like a sponge, it absorbs water vapour that the termites exhale, holds it and releases it at a low rate. This layer forms a water reservoir with which humidity can be maintained at a high level.

Repair

Has the mound to be repaired after damage, the termites work from the outside inwards. Within a few hours, they are fixing the outer layer, after weeks the outer layer and middle layer are ready. The repair of the inner layer takes more time. The researchers think that this is because the animals must collect material that is less easy to find.

Willy van Strien

Photo: Queen of Globitermes sulphureus in nest. © Chun-I Chiu

Source:
Chiu, C-I., K. Attasopa, S. Wongkoon, Y. Chromkaew, H. Liao, K-C. Kuan, P. Suttiprapan, I. Guswenrivo, H-F. Li & Y. Sripontan, 2024. Three‐layered functionally specialized nest structures enhance strength and water retention in mounds of Globitermes sulphureus (Blattodea: Termitidae). Environmental Entomology, online 9 October. Doi: 10.1093/ee/nvae093

Nest architectural traditions

9 April 2024 /

Stingless bee follows existing construction plan

Nest of Scaptotrigona depilis with combs in corkscrew form

Workers of the stingless bee Scaptotrigona depilis build their nests according to the architectural style they perceive, Viviana di Pietro and colleagues show. And so, a tradition is born.

The brood cell complex in nests of the stingless bee Scaptotrigona depilis, which lives in South America, can have two distinct forms. In most colonies, workers build combs (plates with brood cells) horizontally one above the other, each comb starting from a central pillar: the parallel form. But in some colonies, they construct a continuous spiral comb without a central pillar: the corkscrew form. So, the workers that build the combs follow one of two possible architectural styles.

This is not a matter of hereditary makeup, Viviana di Pietro and colleagues write, nor is it an adaptation to the location of the nest or to the environmental temperature. The workers simply continue to build in the style that has already been applied, continuing a tradition.

Like honeybees, stingless bees are highly social species with queens that reproduce and workers that do the other tasks. These tasks include construction and maintenance of the nest, which they make in cavities. Workers of Scaptotrigona depilis construct combs from a mixture of wax and plant resin. They build them from the bottom up, and as said in one of two ways. They put food in each cell and close it after the queen has added an egg. The egg develops into a larva and pupa, and finally a young bee emerges.

Switching

Combs are much more often built in the parallel form than in the corkscrew form: about 95 per cent of the colonies have the parallel form.

Scaptotrigona depilis: combs in parallel form

Sometimes a colony switches from one type to another. On average, the parallel form lasts for almost two years. The corkscrew shape is maintained for a month and a half; that is much shorter, but still longer than a cohort of workers is building, namely two to three weeks. Both architectural styles are passed on from generation to generation for some period.

The researchers wanted to determine whether this is because workers are guided by the structure that already exists. They therefore conducted experiments in which they took experienced workers from one colony and placed them in another colony, the brood cell complex of which had either the familiar or the alternative form. The result was clear: workers that were placed with the type they were not familiar with, immediately continued that construction plan, instead of adhering to the building plan they were used to. Apparently, they didn’t have to learn that different architectural style from their new nest mates.

Default

In a second experiment, the researchers changed the parallel form of the combs to the corkscrew form in a number of colonies by making a cut in the top comb from the edge to the centre and placing one end on top of the other. In most cases, the workers continued to build following the corkscrew form.

The conclusion is that not much is needed to maintain a tradition. It is sufficient if the animals are guided by what exists, in this case: they apply the building plan of the existing structure. It requires no understanding, planning or communication. The technical term for this form of self-organization is stigmergy.

Probably, the parallel form of the brood cell complex is default. The researchers think that sometimes a corkscrew shape arises by error. Instead of breaking things down, the bees than continue to build according to that model.

Willy van Strien

Photos:
Large: Rare corkscrew shape comb; open cells at the margin still have to be filled
Small: Parallel combs with central pillar, the dominant form
©Viviana di Pietro

Source:
Di Pietro, V., C. Menezes, M.G. de Britto Frediani, D.J. Pereira, M. Fajgenblat, H. Mendes Ferreira, T. Wenseleers & R. Caliari Oliveira, 2024. The inheritance of alternative nest architectural traditions in stingless bees. Current Biology, online 19 March. Doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.02.073

The pufferfish’s wonderful nest

23 August 2018 /

Maker simply digs ditches, following a few rules

White-spotted pufferfish creates wonderful nest by digging ditchesThousands of times the white-spotted pufferfish male digs a rectilinear ditch in the sand, following simple rules. Ryo Mizuuchi and colleagues explain how this process results in a huge and beautiful sand structure.

Geometrical nest of white-spotted pufferfishIn 1995, divers detected a circular structure with a nice regular pattern on the sandy bottom of the subtropical sea around the southern islands of Japan; its diameter was no less than two meters. Shortly after, more of these structures were found. People were wonder-struck. How did these mystery circles emerge?

The answer was just as surprising as the find itself: the builder turned out to be the male of an unknown pufferfish, an inconspicuous animal only ten centimetres long. It was named Torquigener albomaculosus, white-spotted pufferfish. The large structure is its nest. It consists of an inner circle filled with fine sand particles, surrounded by an outer ring with 25 to 30 radially arranged ditches and ridges; half way, the ring is flattened and the ditches are a bit wider.

Decoration

Hiroshi Kawase and colleagues described how the pufferfish creates this impressive structure, which takes seven to nine days to complete. First, it makes dozens of irregular depressions in the sand, probably to demarcate its building site. On the second day, a basic circular shape begins to emerge, with a flat inner circle and a vague pattern of ditches and ridges. The animal digs the ditches by swimming over the bottom and stirring up sand with its body and fins. The next few days, the inner circle grows and the pattern of ditches and ridges becomes increasingly clear. Moved by the fish’s bustle, the finest sand particles are deposited on the bottom of the ditches and then flow into the inner circle.

Eventually, the pufferfish creates an irregular pattern in the inner circle by flapping its anal fin on the bottom. On the ridges, it deposits some pieces of shell and coral for decoration. And then it is ready to receive females – because that is what it is all about.

Care

When a female shows up outside the ring, he invites her to enter the circle by stirring up a lot of fine sand particles. She likes that, because she prefers to lay her eggs on fine sand. When she is inside the nest, a game of approaching starts. He repeatedly rushes to her and retreats, she sometimes pretends to leave. Eventually she goes down to lay eggs, and while he bites her behind her mouth, he fertilises them with his sperm. They spawn repeatedly. Then she leaves, perhaps to come back again. On this day, the male will receive several females in his nest.

Then a new period starts: the care for the eggs is his task. He flaps his fins, keeps the eggs free from debris, and chases away fishes that come close to the nest. He now does not care about maintaining the structure anymore, so that the pattern fades and the gathered fine sand particles disperse. When the larvae are about to hatch after six days, he flaps his fins at a higher frequency. If the male starts a new breeding cycle, he will make a new nest instead of repairing the old one.

Repeat

The question remains as to how this pufferfish is able to accurately construct a large structure with such geometric design. It mainly stays near the bottom and therefore it has no overview.

It doesn’t need to, as Ryo Mizuuchi and colleagues now show. The structure emerges because the fish repeats a simple behaviour – digging a ditch – thousands of times, applying a few simple rules.

The researchers derived those rules from their observations. They saw how the male marks the centre of the circle by pressing its belly on the ground. Then it repeatedly digs a rectilinear ditch. Initially, the ditches have a random orientation, but later they are more and more directed to the centre of the area. To dig the ditches in the ring, the male always swims from the outside to the inside. The pattern is becoming clearer because it always starts at a low position, where a ditch is already visible. It also digs in the inner circle, but mostly from the inside out; that is probably to demarcate the circle.

When the researchers simulated the building process on the computer following these rules, the ring structure with ditches and ridges did emerge. They also discovered that the thicker or stronger the male is, the wider its ditches are. It is possible that females assess ditch width to select a suitable male, next to the amount of sand he is stirring up. The research on this fish is not finished yet.

Willy van Strien

Photos: Hiroshi Kawase (via Flickr, Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.0)

A BBC-video shows how the pufferfish male builds its wonderful nest

Sources:
Mizuuchi, R., H. Kawase, H. Shin, D. Iwai & S. Kondo, 2018. Simple rules for construction of a geometric nest structure by pufferfish. Scientific Reports 8: 12366. Doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-30857-0
Kawase, H., R. Mizuuchi, H. Shin, Y. Kitajima, K. Hosoda, M. Shimizu, D. Iwai & S. Kondo, 2017. Discovery of an earliest-stage “mystery circle” and development of the structure constructed by pufferfish, Torquigener albomaculosus (Pisces: Tetraodontidae). Fishes 2: 14. Doi: 10.3390/fishes2030014
Kawase, H., Y. Okata, K. Ito & A. Ida, 2015. Spawning behavior and paternal egg care in a circular structure constructed by pufferfish, Torquigener albomaculosus (Pisces: Tetraodontidae). Bulletin of Marine Science 91: 33-43. Doi: 10.5343/bms.2014.1055
Kawase, H., Y. Okata & K. Ito, 2013. Role of huge geometric circular structures in the reproduction of a marine pufferfish. Scientific Reports 3 : 2106. Doi: 10.1038/srep02106

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