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This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Find sources: "Syntermes dirus" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2024)

Syntermes dirus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Blattodea
Infraorder:	Isoptera
Family:	Termitidae
Genus:	Syntermes
Species:	S. dirus
Binomial name
Syntermes dirus (Burmeister, 1839)

Syntermes dirus is a species of termite native to Brazil which forage in the open for dead leaves, twigs etcetera. They build mounds up to eight feet (2.5 meters) high which may require 4,000 years to complete. One complex of mounds, termed a "megacity" covers 88,800 square miles (230,000 square kilometers), larger than the island of Great Britain, and is said to be visible from space. Their activities have thus far involved the moving of ten cubic kilometers (2.4 cubic miles) of soil: Enough to make four thousand stacks each the size of the Pyramid of Cheops.Of the nine most common species of termite in the Distrito Federal (Brasilia) Syntermes dirus is by far the largest, with soldiers averaging 117.3 micrograms (six times the weight of the second largest) and a length of 15.57 millimeters. This species forages at night for grass, leaves, both green and recently fallen. These are eaten as is, there apparently being no fungus gardens. In Brasilia the nests extend 1.5 meters (five feet) beneath the mound.

References

1. Craig Glenday, ed. (2021). Guinness Book of Records -2022. London: SVP Global Publishing. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-913484-10-1.
2. Martin, Stephen J.; Funch, Roy R.; Hanson, Paul R.; Yoo, Eun-Hye (2018-11-19). "A vast 4,000-year-old spatial pattern of termite mounds". Current Biology. 28 (22): R1292 – R1293. Bibcode:2018CBio...28R1292M. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.09.061. ISSN 0960-9822.
3. Coles de Negret, Helen R.; Redford, Kent H. (1982). "The Biology of Nine Termite Species (Isoptera; Termitidae) from the cerrado of central Brazil". Retrieved December 30, 2024.

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