Headbangers Give the Alarm

For a while, heavy metal fans were referred to as headbangers because of their extreme and even harmful head motions. Sure, practically everyone does some nodding to the beat, but that is excessive. We looked at headbanger woodpeckers, here is another creature.

Macrotermes are termites that actually cultivate fungus, which is good eats. This is impressive since the savannah of Africa is not conducive. They also build mounds, the largest of which are in Africa. The Macrotermes carbonarius species take headbanging quite literally.

Fungus-growing termites, Flickr / Bernard DuPont (CC BY-SA 2.0), modified at PhotoFunia

While termites are doing termite stuff, they have to watch out so they don't become chow for predators. When the nest is disturbed, sentinels commence to headbanging. No, they don't crank up Stryper, they bang their heads to sound the alarm. I'm sure that some folks will accept "it evolved" as an explanation 🙄but the work of the Master Engineer is the most logical conclusion.

Who could imagine—much less purposefully invent—an underground warning communication system operated by centimeter-long sentinels who knock their noggins upon the ground repeatedly and rapidly to sound an alarm? Astonishingly, that auditory-vibrational alarm is relayed from termite to termite in mere seconds, like a chain of signal fires.

Chew on the entire article at "The Alarming Truth About Headbanging Termites."