Termite Lab
1. Take out your handout for the termite lab activity that we just did.
2. Can anyone describe the termite behavior?
(Walked along the papermate blue ink line).
3. Can anyone explain what might be happening? What do you think is attracting
the termites to that particular kind of ink?
Ink is made of chemicals. Insect must be following the trail of these chemicals.
4. Can you think of any instances where termites or ants follow a certain path?
Ex: Leaf cutter ants (slide).
Must be a chemical – called a pheromone.
5. What word does pheromone sound like? Hormone.
6. Does anyone know what a hormone is? What do they do?
Chemicals secreted in one part of the body that have an effect on another part of
the body.
Help to regulate the behavior of cells in the body.
Endocrine system – is how hormones move around.
Pheromones are similar but you are sending out a chemical that affects other
members of your species.
Ants and termites are supercolonies – function almost like a multicellular
organism. Each member of the colony has a particular job to do that contributes
to the survival of the entire colony.
Pheromones help them to coordinate their behavior – ex: locate a food source.
This particular ink might have a chemicals in it that looks like a pheromone for
that species.
Chemical – like a key that opens a lock (slide).
It sets off a series of changes (like a cascade of reactions) that result in
transduction of a signal that sets off a behavioral program in termites.
Pheromone – agonist - fits in the same lock as the pheromone– mimics activation
by something else.
Antagonist – blocks the effect by binding to the receptor site.
Medicines usually act as either agonists or antagonists to either promote or block
the receptors.
7. What is the important environmental lesson can we learn from this? Big lesson.
This is but one example of a chemical that we dump into the environment that has
some previously unknown effect.
This is called the Law of Unintended Consequences. We made a chemical (blue
ink) that acts as a pheromone agonist.
8. Five to ten thousand new chemicals are produced per year by our technology.
Very few are even tested – chemicals tested on rats are tested using huge doses
for limited periods of time. What can that really tell us about long term effects on
people?
The Law of Unintended Consequences is also known as the Precautionary
Principle.
We need to think more about using green chemistry rather than dumping new
chemistry into the environment.
8. This termite activity also serves as an interesting ecology lesson.
Consider the termite’s diet.
No animal exists the makes an enzyme that digests wood.
So how do you think termites do it?
9. Hint: Cows eat grass – how do they do it? They don’t have the enzymes to digest
the cellulose in grass.
Hint: Symbiosis.
Termites have many microbes living in their guts that make an enzyme that
Digests the wood.
They have a “universe of creatures” in their guts to help them digest their food.