Despite sharing some characteristics and having superficially similar apperance and social behaviour, ants and termites are not closely related.
There are a number of physical differences to tell ants and termites apart than can be casually observed:
- Ants narrow at the "waist" whilst termites do not. For termites, the body segments are more broadly attached.
- Ants have elbowed antennae which bend after the first long segment. Termite antennae are generally straight.
- Termites emerge from eggs with and adult-like body form and simply grow; they have no pupal stage like ants.
Termite colonies are composed of similar number of males and females, with similar functions, unlike ants whose colonies are almost exclusively female. In terms of evolution, the fossil record suggests ants and termites diverged around 105 - 135 million years ago and this was followed by a rapid diversification of both groups. To put this in perspective, humans and chimpanzees are only thought to have finally diverged as recently as 5.4 million years ago.
Tags: Frequently Asked Question | Morphology & Physiology | Evolution | Behaviour
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