A nice article from Prague on the history of termites and the role of the queen. By the way, the species used in the Termitat, Zootermopsis angusticollis, is pretty clever and can produce replacement kings and queens from the colony’s collection of young nymphs as they molt and get larger. During these molts they can become what the colony needs at the time. Its all controlled with pheromone chemicals and the signals they produce in the internal chemistry of the molting individuals. They can be a replacement reproductive, soldier, or “worker”. The soldiers and workers (not a true class in Zootermopsis as in the higher termites) can be male or female!
