Entomological Etymology: the Big Blue Bug (termites)
What’s up with this 58-foot long big blue bug?
It’s a Rhode Island icon since 1980, created by George Cardono for the New England Pest Control company.
But... what is it?
For the answer, I refer you to its name: Nibbles Woodaway. Yep, it’s a termite all right!
Termites, of course, are famous for eating wood and destroying your house.
If you’ve seen termites, most likely they didn’t have wings, unlike Nibbles. That’s because the most individuals in a termite colony are wingless workers or soldiers. Only young reproductive termites have wings -- future queens and kings. Winged individuals are called “alates”, from Latin “alatus” meaning wing. They use their wings to disperse and find a mate, before establishing a colony and losing their wings (called dealation).
The word “termite” comes from Modern Latin “termites”, which just meant termite. Tracing back a little further, you get Late Latin “termes”, which was understood to mean “woodworm” or “white ant”. “Termes” in turn comes from “terere”, which has to do with rubbing and erosion. In turn, “termes” comes from a PIE root “tere” meaning “to rub or turn”. “Tere” is actually the source of the word “turn” itself, and also has produced many other English words, including “attrition”, “trauma”, and” tribadism”!
Before English adopted the Latin word “termites”, English speakers called this creature either a “wood ant” or a “white ant”. It’s understandable that lots of people grouped termites and ants together, because they both live in large colonies comprised of wingless workers. But actually, termites and ants are on completely different parts of the insect family tree!
In a previous video I talked about holometabolous vs. hemimetabolous insects. That’s a big division within the insect lineage, between those with a complete metamorphosis going through a larval and pupal stage, vs. those which are born with the same basic shape to the adult stage. While ants are holometabolous and raise larvae, termites are hemimetabolous. So they’re not at all closely related. Instead, their eusocial lifestyle is a great example of convergent evolution. And ants and termites evolved a bunch of similarities, including reproductive division of labor between queens and workers, and specialized worker morphotypes like soldiers, and the ability to create pheromone trails for foraging. In both ants and termites, the new reproductives even lose their wings when they found a new colony.
While ants are most closely related to bees and wasps, termites are actually a subgroup within cockroaches. The termite group are scientifically called “Isoptera”, from Greek “iso-” meaning same, and “ptera” for wing. That’s because their four wings all look pretty much the same. Again, you only see the wings on new reproductives, not workers.
As for why Nibbles is blue? Because why not?
Words: Alate, dealation, termite, termites, termes, terere, tere, wood ant, white ant, isoptera.
Sources:
Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary.
AP, “Creator of Rhode Island’s Big Blue Bug landmark dies at 88”. PBS.
North Carolina State University. “Isoptera”.
Amy Forliti, “For 2-ton, blue termite, near-cult status in R.I.” SouthCoast Today.
