Life Cycle
R. flavipes are opportunistic, and a newly hatched termite can develop into any of a number of castes. At first, it becomes a worker termite and is most likely to remain one for its entire lifespan. Molting can change the worker into a pre-soldier and subsequently, a soldier. The soldier caste is a terminal stage which can no longer molt.
R. flavipes also molts into nymphs, which are the precursors of winged adult termites called alates which are sexually mature. Nymphal termites are non terminal and can revert back to the worker stage. These reverted nymphs are called pseudergates. Nymphs and workers can also develop into secondary and tertiary neotenic reproductives respectively.
Read more about this topic: Eastern Subterranean Termite
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or cycle:
“Our intellect is not the most subtle, the most powerful, the most appropriate, instrument for revealing the truth. It is life that, little by little, example by example, permits us to see that what is most important to our heart, or to our mind, is learned not by reasoning but through other agencies. Then it is that the intellect, observing their superiority, abdicates its control to them upon reasoned grounds and agrees to become their collaborator and lackey.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Roumania.”
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)