Are Termite Societies, Coprophagous?

This topic may not be good for reading with breakfast or coffee break.

OK. No thanks to Karl the Tracker Druid, I have discovered some societies of social insects in which coprophagy may be an important source of nutrition in those particular societies. That’s right. Rumor has it that many, maybe all, termites eat their own shit. Well now. Since this information comes in the form of a vague rumor, it is uncertain if a termite eats its own shit or another termite’s shit. And that to my mind is important. Does a particular termite take a shit and immediately turn around and eat its shit up? Or, does another termite closely follow the first termite around waiting for that termite to shit, then eat the shit up? Or maybe every termite in the colony is assigned a permanent shit eating buddy? Rumor does not answer these important questions.

Also, since shit eating is considered bad, is it possible that the coprophagous termite rumor was started up by pest managers? Yes. Those pest managers may be using coprophagy as another excuse for killing all the termites. But that is a long shot. Possibly, since termites definitely eat houses, the pest managers don’t require additional bad juju on the termites. Course, on the other hand, propagandists never stop at the literal truth of a matter.

Uh, termites also periodically shed their skins. They then may eat those up too. Makes for a litter free termite community. Like one time an ant was visiting Termite City. Hey, the ant thought, Termite City is about the cleanest community I have ever espied. However, do these termites keep the place so nice and tidy? Then the ant approached a termite and queried, Say there, Comrade Termite, this is about the cleanest social insect situation I have ever encountered. What do you do with all the shit and dead skin?

For answer, Comrade Termite took such a mighty poop that the effort of getting all the poop out did also burst Comrade Termite’s exoskeleton all asunder. Then, to the utter astonishment of Fellow Worker Ant, Comrade Termite ate the whole mess up. Mercy, thought Fellow Worker Ant.

But getting back to human coprophagy, Crumby also ran across the interesting partnership humans have evolved with shellfish. Yepper. What humans do is feed human excrement to the shellfish. Then the shellfish convert that shit into like a seafood medley just like the seafood medley Crumby ate up at that seaside restaurant in San Juan. Then shortly after dining on the seafood medley, Crumby shit out all that seafood medley. Yes. That seafood medley was just a flush away from its journey back to Shellfish City. Mercy!