ANTSTORE World of Ants

[ork]

Hi,
I have king and queen of macrotermes gilvus(pairs)
I need help,i only have experience with ants(big experience) i have this macrotermes collected in south est asia, in little glass bottles with cotton and pieces of dry leaves, humidity are high and temperature are constant 24-28 C.
is a very interesting species.
if you have experience please explain me : )

[Creature]

I took a little ride around the world wide web to search information about this species.

They build their nests in sand/loam and live by cultivating a fungus that "eats" stuff like grass and sorts of wood.

I would give them a basin like u would use it for ants , filled up with sand/loam and let them digg their way.
And i would offer them some wood leafes and grass. If you are unlucky , the queen and king cant cultivate a fungus
because they dont have a "starting piece".

Leafcutter ant queens always carry a little piece of fungus from the colony they left.

[ork]

Thank you,I know this termite, i study for many days this them in a forest.
are very interesting insect,like ants they foraging outside the nest and make "roads" with many workers and two size of soldiers, the small soldiers stay near to the workers and the bog soldiers defens advanced positions,(and can bite hard) they have a curious alarm system , the soldiers hitting the dryed leaves in the floor whit head and you can listen a sound like a strong rain, because many soldiers repeat sincronized this "hitting dance " and in many meters of ground they are. Simultaneously the workers escape to the nest.
my problems are about to keep in artificial nest.
I think is good idea to make ground little nest,because is good for maintenance of humidity,but i cant observe them...
sorry for my poor english
now I try to send photos
in a foto of pair you see the king(?) cleaning the eggs

[Creature]

If i were you , would take an ant farm , with the right size , so they can turn around without problems. This way , the chance is very high , that u have chambers directly at the glass where u can observe them

[Markus]

Termite Queens can become very big (I don't know if all species are the same), turning around should be a big problem in an Ant farm...

[baumarkthammer]

Termite queens become physogastric like some ants but after one year or more.
In the first year the queen lives in the ground with some workers and doesn´t have a big nest. After one year the colony grows faster.
I wouldn´t keep them in a farm because lateron the fungus gets very big.
Keeping them in a glas filled with forrest ground, white rotten wood, and a lair of loam would be the best.
Until there are no workers the queen and the king eat particles from the ground they live in and when there are the first workers they will start growing their fungus.
On the photo you can clearly see a pair of termites. The species could be right, but I´m not sure since I´m not an expert on termite species.

[Markus]

@Ork: it would be very nice, if you could documentate the colony growing in an thread in this forum!