their favourite food, wood and materials containing cellulose like cardboard. They are sometimes referred to 'white ants'. Subterranean termites have pale brown to white bodies with a darker head and have no waist between the thorax and abdomen. The antennae have bead-like segments. The non-reproductive forms never develop wings, are blind, and have thin skin that makes them vulnerable to drying out. This is why termites have to maintain contact with the soil to obtain sufficient moisture to survive.

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Termites have several "castes" that have definite tasks within the colony:

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• Queen/s 
  There is usually one main (first-form) queen who may have been the original founder of the colony. She may be larger than other colony members and swollen with eggs. Queens can live and reproduce for a long time (up to 20 years in some species). There may also be several supplementary queens in a colony, which can take over egg production from the primary queen when she dies.

• King
  The original king fertilises the queen and helps to tend the young during the foundation of the colony.

• Workers
  With white-bodies and thin skin, these are the most numerous in the colony and are involved in food gathering, feeding and tending the young and the queen, and building or maintaining the nest. They rarely emerge from the nest or associated tunnels, as they dry up easily outside the humid nest environment.​

• Soldiers
  The colony defenders. They are sometimes larger than workers, but mostly the same size, with darker heads. Two body forms are possible, with a particular species having one or the other: mandibulate (fully-jawed) and nasute (long-nosed). Some species also have two size classes - major and minor soldiers.

• Reproductive
  Both winged and wingless: these are the future kings and queens. Beginning as wingless nymphs, they develop by shedding their skin through several stages until they are fully winged adults. With darker, more durable bodies and compound eyes, they are able to survive for short periods outside the colony. They are destined to either leave the nest on a colonising flight or to take over from the queen if she dies.

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Nests are formed either in trees, in soil mounds or underground. There are 5 main nest types and many species will build more than one type of nest:

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• Ground mounds

• Tree nests (outside tree, connected to internal cavity)

• Pole nests (on human stru ctures such as fence posts and telegraph poles)

• Subterranean nests (underground, in soil, stumps and tree bases)

• Tree wood (inside the tree