h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's finally raining here! Soft but penetrating rains for much of the day. What proves that this time it's for real, is that the termites were flying. The flying kinds, called alates, are the fertile males and females. The regular kinds are the sterile workers. The alates come out as soon as there is decent rain falling. They can't waste their opportunity on insufficient showers, so somehow they know when the rain is going to be good. The alates fly out of the termite hills in huge numbers; they fly a distance and then drop to the ground, lose their wings and pair up. They dig wherever they find a place to dig in, with a view to starting up a new colony. In the end, only a tiny percentage of the alates who fly out, ever get to establish an actual new colony. That happens if they can avoid predators, find suitable ground close to a food source, dig down deep enough, successfully mate, and then the queen will start producing eggs from which the first workers will hatch. Then these have a go at digging and finding food, and if they are successful, there will be a new colony!

One of the gauntlet of hazards faced by the flying alates is the birds that will target them for food. These fertile insects are plump with fat, because these resources will need to last until the colony actually starts getting in actual food. They are also not very good at flying; they fly only once in their lives and don't seem to have any idea where they want to go. Pretty much every kind of bird will go for them when they're there. It's like raining porridge (an Afrikaans proverb: if it's raining porridge, then you'd better ladle it in). Today in my garden the termites were flying, and the regulars were all after them - an unique moment to see so many species all together: laughing doves, olive thrushes, Cape robin-chats, white-eyes, bronze mannikins, Cape sparrows, Masked weavers, Spectacled weavers, Marico sunbirds - and those only in my own garden!

The alates are also targeted once they've dropped to the ground. They appear to be intent on little else than pairing up - you'll see a pair running around, the one pressed up right to the behind of the other, again with no apparent idea where they're going. Birds will peck them up, but they also provide food for frogs! The little rain frogs over here also come out after the first drenching rains. They gobble up as many termites as they can, so they are fueled for their own reproductive efforts.

Wow! This would make a super video.

One day, one day I'll have a bit of money for a proper camera with good video recording abilities …

They were out today also. I forgot to say, but once having landed and thrown off their wings, the termites run around with their butts lifted into the air to signal others, until they're paired up.