Mound-Building Termite

Construct mounds up to 9 meters tall with complex architecture: ventilation shafts, fungus gardens, nursery chambers, and temperature-regulated central chambers. External temperatures in African savannas swing from 40°C day to near-freezing night. Inside the mound: constant 30°C and 95% humidity, maintained by ventilation chimneys exploiting convection currents. The mound acts as lungs. This allows termites to cultivate Termitomyces fungi unavailable to non-mound-building species. The constructed niche has radically different selection pressures, favoring blind workers, specialized fungus-tending castes, and queens producing 30,000 eggs daily.