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A32 FEATURE
Tuesday 6 augusT 2019

In Brazil backlands, termites built millions of dirt mounds

By VICTOR CAIVANO and thus homes, the social
PETER PRENGAMAN insects are also some of
Associated Press the world’s best engineers,
PALMEIRAS, Brazil (AP) — building vast networks of
Roy Funch, an American underground tunnels and
botanist who has lived and huge heaps of dirt.
worked in Brazil’s hard- An Associated Press jour-
scrabble northeast for de- nalist who accompanied
cades, long looked at huge Funch to watch the noctur-
cone-shaped mounds of nal termites at work saw sol-
mud in the distance and dier termites about a half-
wondered. inch long and with large
What built them? How pincers stand guard while
many were there? How smaller workers gathered
long had they been there? dead leaves and cut them
After years of failing to in smaller pieces, making
generate interest in the “click, click, click” sounds
mounds, a chance meet- as they worked. When a
ing with an English expert flashlight was shined on the
on social insects, Stephen A soldier termite with large pincers stands guard while smaller worker termites gather dead leaves termites for a few seconds,
Martin, led to remarkable and cut them into pieces near Lencois, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018. they scurried down small
discoveries: There are over Associated Press holes.
200 million mounds built clay become like stone. Bahia about 30 miles (50 ki- gion gets rainfall only a few Rob Pringle, a Princeton
by termites that stretch Poor people in the area lometers) west of the edge weeks a year. The desert biology professor who has
across 88,800 square miles use chunks of the mounds of the mound area. shrubland vegetation cov- studied termites and their
(230,000 square kilometers), to build adobe houses. When Martin mentioned ers and camouflages the mounds in Kenya, Mozam-
about the size of Great Brit- Funch says he wrote two seeing the mounds while mounds in large swaths of bique and Namibia, said
ain. articles about the mounds he was driving around, the area, one of the rea- fighting between termite
What’s more, some of the in Brazilian publications, Funch told him: “You just sons they were essentially colonies can lead to pat-
dirt heaps are nearly 4,000 but they didn’t draw any met the only guy in Brazil hiding in plain sight. terns in the mounds they
years old. attention. Without exper- who is working on these Funch said improvements produce.
“While the Romans were tise in insects or the world mounds.” in Google Earth’s imag- The fact that the Brazil study
building their columns, of scientific publishing, he The two teamed up, and ing in recent years helped found the termites didn’t
their buildings, these ter- wasn’t sure how to take his their research was pub- them understand the ex- fight unless they were from
mites were building their research to the next level. lished Nov. 19 in Current Bi- tent of the formations via colonies several kilometers
mounds,” Funch said, add- Asking local people didn’t ology. spatial mapping. apart means there is a lot
ing that the dirt piles rep- help. The pair concluded the “The mounds go on forev- more to discover about
resent the largest biocon- “Some would say they mounds were built by Syn- er in every direction,” said how termites create such
struction of any species are termites, some would termes dirus, a large ter- Funch, who initially came to patterns.
other than humans. say ants, some would say: mite species that feeds Brazil as a Peace Corps vol- Funch and Martin say there
The mounds, seen in vari- ‘Well, they have always on leaves and lives under- unteer in 1977 and stayed. is much they still need to in-
ous places in a vast desert- been there. They are part ground. The mounds are also very vestigate.
like region called the Caat- of nature,’” Funch said. While the termites are old. Radioactive testing Among the major questions:
inga, stand between 6 and Enter Martin, an entomolo- found in the region, the re- determined they ranged Why don’t the mounds ap-
13 feet (2 to 4 meters) high gist at the University of searchers didn’t find them in age from 690 to 3,820 pear to have active colo-
and are spaced roughly Salford in England. A few actively working in the years. nies underneath them?
equally apart — between years ago, Martin was in larger mounds, but instead “It could have been a gi- What causes the uniform
52 and 72 feet (16 to 22 northeastern Brazil studying along the edges of areas ant termite (that built the spacing? And how long did
meters). honey bees and ants in the with mounds. mounds),” joked Luciano it take termites to make the
To landowners who clear state of Bahia. He, too, was Cutting into several Oliveira, a local who lives biggest mounds?
brush to plant crops, the curious about the mounds. mounds, they found only a in a house made with earth “These are Mayan temples
mounds are a nuisance. “I was intrigued because of small tube-like hole going taken from a mound. “No- that the locals knew were
Bulldozing them is difficult their patterns,” he said. to the top of each one, not body knows.” here,” said Funch. “But the
because over years of be- By chance, Martin and an extensive pattern of tun- While many people view critical eye of science is
ing baked in the hot sun, Funch met next to a river nels throughout. That sug- termites as pests because just beginning to discover
the already-hard dirt and in Lencois, a small town in gested the termites were some species eat wood, them.”q
simply finding a place to
chuck earth from under-
ground, where they build
their tunnels.
“These are just waste
heaps,” said Martin. “Un-
der normal circumstances
we wouldn’t see them be-
cause they wouldn’t persist
for such a long time.”
In more humid areas where
the same species lives,
such as the Amazon, the
mounds are eroded by rain
Giant termite mounds cover a field near Palmeiras, Brazil, and wind. American botanist Roy Funch sits on top of a giant termite
Saturday, Nov. 24, 2018. But the Caatinga ecore- mound near Palmeiras, Brazil, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2018.
Associated Press Associated Press