What will I learn about: Learn how termites evolved from solitary cockroaches into highly social insects by sharing the essential gut microbes necessary for digesting wood?

Learn how termites evolved from solitary cockroaches into highly social insects by sharing the essential gut microbes necessary for digesting wood.

What will I learn about: the enormous global footprint of termites, a species that collectively outweighs humans ten to one and causes $40 billion in property damage annually?

Understand the enormous global footprint of termites, a species that collectively outweighs humans ten to one and causes $40 billion in property damage annually.

What will I learn about: why scientists historically projected human political structures onto social insects, using termite colonies to justify everything from monarchies to slavery?

Discover why scientists historically projected human political structures onto social insects, using termite colonies to justify everything from monarchies to slavery.

What will I learn about: Explore the evolutionary conundrum of termite eusociality, where a single queen breeds while chemically suppressing the sexual maturity of her worker and soldier castes?

Explore the evolutionary conundrum of termite eusociality, where a single queen breeds while chemically suppressing the sexual maturity of her worker and soldier castes.

What will I learn about: how studying the complex behavior of these resilient insects could unlock future human innovations, including sustainable biofuels, advanced robotics, and self-building architecture?

Find out how studying the complex behavior of these resilient insects could unlock future human innovations, including sustainable biofuels, advanced robotics, and self-building architecture.

Underbug

An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology

Lisa Margonelli

★ 4.6 / 5(28 ratings)

Start ListeningDownload QR code that opens AudiobookHub on the App Store

Try free on iPhoneScan to start in 5 seconds

Categories:

Nature & the Environment

If You're Curious About These Questions...

You should listen to this audiobook

💡Have you ever wondered how a tiny, blind insect manages to build complex, self-cooling "skyscrapers" that rival human engineering?
💡What if the secret to a sustainable energy future is hidden inside the gut of one of the world’s most hated pests?
💡What’s the secret behind the 250-million-year-old partnership between termites and a mysterious fungus that allows them to thrive against all odds?

Listen to Underbug — Free Audiobook

Loading player...

Key Takeaways from Underbug

✓Learn how termites evolved from solitary cockroaches into highly social insects by sharing the essential gut microbes necessary for digesting wood.
✓Understand the enormous global footprint of termites, a species that collectively outweighs humans ten to one and causes $40 billion in property damage annually.
✓Discover why scientists historically projected human political structures onto social insects, using termite colonies to justify everything from monarchies to slavery.
✓Explore the evolutionary conundrum of termite eusociality, where a single queen breeds while chemically suppressing the sexual maturity of her worker and soldier castes.
✓Find out how studying the complex behavior of these resilient insects could unlock future human innovations, including sustainable biofuels, advanced robotics, and self-building architecture.

Learning Tools

Reinforce what you learned from Underbug

Mind Map

Underbug

Evolution & Biology+

Historical Perceptions+

The Evolutionary Conundrum+

Mounds as Living Organisms+

Symbiotic Agriculture+

Biofuel Potential+

Swarm Intelligence & Robotics+

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Question 1 of 8

What evolutionary adaptation forced early solitary termite ancestors to become highly social creatures?

A. The need to build massive, climate-controlled mounds to survive the ice age.
B. The necessity of exchanging microbe-rich feces to replenish gut bacteria lost during molting.
C. The requirement to collectively defend against predatory ant species.
D. The need to cooperatively forage for scarce fruit and fungi in the rainforest canopy.

Question 2 of 8

Historically, how did early scientists and observers primarily interpret the behavior and structure of termite and ant colonies?

A. As perfectly optimized biological machines devoid of any hierarchy.
B. As completely random assortments of individuals driven only by environmental factors.
C. As direct mirrors of human societies, projecting concepts like aristocracy, slavery, and factory work onto them.
D. As primitive versions of single-celled organisms that had not yet evolved complex behaviors.

Question 3 of 8

How does William D. Hamilton's theory of 'inclusive fitness' explain the evolutionary success of non-breeding termite workers?

A. Workers eventually mutate into queens if the colony is threatened.
B. Altruistic behavior makes evolutionary sense when organisms sacrifice themselves for genetically similar relatives.
C. The entire colony shares a single, massive strand of DNA that is passed on by the workers.
D. Workers secretly reproduce when the queen is dormant, ensuring their specific genes survive.

Question 4 of 8

What did physiologist J. Scott Turner discover about the function of termite mounds after pumping propane gas into them?

A. They act as massive chimneys designed solely to cool the underground nest.
B. They serve as defensive fortresses that trap toxic gases to kill invaders.
C. They function like 'lungs,' moving oxygen down and drawing carbon dioxide up and away from the nest.
D. They are primarily designed to capture and store rainwater for the dry season.

Question 5 of 8

How do African Macrotermes termites manage to digest complex plant materials like cellulose and lignin?

A. They cultivate a specialized fungus called Termitomyces that breaks down the plant matter into simple sugars.
B. They have evolved a secondary stomach that acts as a highly pressurized fermentation chamber.
C. They rely exclusively on the heat generated by the sun to bake the wood until it becomes digestible.
D. They capture and consume smaller insects that have already processed the wood fibers.

Question 6 of 8

Why have scientists struggled to commercially produce 'grassoline' (biofuel) using termite gut microbes, despite identifying the necessary genes?

A. Termite microbes instantly die when exposed to the Earth's atmosphere.
B. The bacteria used in labs, like E. coli, resist producing biofuels due to a chemical 'memory' of their past metabolization.
C. The process requires more wood than is currently available on the planet.
D. Synthesizing the microbes produces a toxic byproduct that destroys the biofuel.

Question 7 of 8

What principle, known as 'stigmergy,' allows termites to build complex structures without a central command or blueprints?

A. Termites use a complex series of clicking sounds to direct the labor of lower-caste workers.
B. The queen emits a single, powerful radio-frequency signal that guides all construction.
C. Individual termites respond to environmental stimuli, such as different pheromones left on mud balls, which trigger specific building behaviors.
D. Each termite is born with a complete genetic memory of the final mound structure.

Question 8 of 8

How is the Wyss Institute's TERMES robot project directly inspired by termite behavior?

A. The robots are designed to consume and metabolize wood to generate their own battery power.
B. The robots use a central AI 'queen' to remotely control the movements of thousands of 'worker' drones.
C. The robots utilize 'extended stigmergy' to build structures collectively by responding to environmental cues rather than a central command.
D. The robots are built with biological termite tissue integrated into their circuitry to process complex algorithms.

Underbug — Full Chapter Overview

1Recommendation
2Termites consume something humans prize very highly indeed – wood.
3Like other social insects, termites have long been viewed as mirrors of human society.
4The social lives of termites present an evolutionary conundrum.
5Termite mounds act like living bodies.
6African termites have evolved a sort of communal stomach.
7Termite guts might help us create biofuels.
8Individual termites are simple, yet together they’re clever – and that’s how future robots may well look, too.

Underbug Summary & Overview

Underbug (2018) explores the fascinating world of a bug so unloved it might just beat cockroaches in an unpopularity contest – the termite. The result of years of research and interviews with biologists, entomologists, and geneticists, Lisa Margonelli’s study sets out to rescue the reputation of this underappreciated creature. Along the way she explores termites’ remarkable architectural powers, unpacks their strange relationship with a 250 million-year-old fungus, and shows how the microbes in their guts might just help us create a more sustainable future.

Who Should Listen to Underbug?

Scientists
Nature-lovers
Amateur entomologists

About the Author: Lisa Margonelli

Lisa Margonelli is an award-winning journalist and the author of Oil on the Brain, a bestselling study of the fossil fuel industry. She is a senior editor at the global news outlet Zócalo Public Square. She has written about science, politics, and technology for the Atlantic, Wired, Scientific American, and the New York Times, among others. She is currently based in the United States.

Underbug

If You're Curious About These Questions...

Listen to Underbug — Free Audiobook

Key Takeaways from Underbug

Learning Tools

Mind Map

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Underbug — Full Chapter Overview

Underbug Summary & Overview

Who Should Listen to Underbug?

About the Author: Lisa Margonelli

Books Similar to Underbug