News Animals

Termite soldiers locate battles with vibrational clues

The insects rely on millisecond-long signal delays to find their way

DEFENDER  A soldier termite stands ready to headbang an alarm and use its superbly sensitive legs to catch clues about which way to run to defend itscolony against a predator.

Christoph Bosch

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

A soldier termite can tell which way to run in a crisis by sensing SOS-message time delays — only hundredths of a human eyeblink long — with its feet.