How do termites live? Why do they lose their wings?
A worker termite may live from one to two years. A queen termite may live for decades. Winged termites, also known as swarmers, need their wings to fly a short distance from their nest. They then pry off their wings and never fly again, burrowing themselves in the soil to spend the remainder of their lives building a new colony. They must remove the wings to move through their underground tunnels.
