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Project Noah Nature School
A large nest with "spikes" all over it made by a colony of termites by earth (or mud) on a tree trunk. About 2 meters tall. It felt very hard, harder than the common termite's mound. No termite can be seen on it's surface. If you look closely in picture 1, you can see a spider's egg hanging between these "thorns", so I assume it is safe enough for spider on the surface.
The colony lives inside this "fortress" next to this tree in a forest trail on the left side of the Maliau Knowledge Trail.
This is the first time I have seen such a termite nest. So far most of the online photographs that I found showing this type of termite nest are all photographed in Maliau Basin. The Encyclopedia of Malaysia has one picture of a termites nest similar to this, belonging to Microcerotermes dubius. >>Map accuracy : 5km diameter.
Spotted on Nov 11, 2012
Submitted on Dec 7, 2012
4 Comments
Thank you too ArgyB.
I can ask them for their building blueprint if you want. :-)
Amazing. Makes me wonder what the inside looks like. Incredible little engineers.
Agree with that, thank you for your comment.
Spectacular construction!