THE MATING DECENT PLIGHT OE ALATE TERMITES 
I have watched winged termites many times over the years but 
usually where these were leaving a termitorium or being taken by 
birds in flight. However j in the early morning of 27th October 1979 
at Miotoni, Karen, Kenya I was fortunate enough to witness a mating 
decent flight of termites to a mating area. The termite species 
was Odontotermes montanus . 
It had rained overnight and was raining again at 06.45 hrs. 
At 07,00 hrs, the first termites appeared, coming from the west 
through and over the forest to an area of very closely mown lawn 
and an area of newly dug flov/erbed with many bare patches of soil. 
The termites gradually descended to flutter about a metre or 
so above the ground. Birds were taking these as they passed over 
the forest. 
By 07.15 hrs, thousands of termites were descending in the rain 
and gradually settling, still fluttering, on the bare soil or the 
lawn, ^ave after wave arrived until 07*45 hrs when the rain and 
flight ceased. The lawn was grey with a fluttering mass with the 
insects attempting to shed their wings. 
I had now realised that this vast mass of several thousand _ 
insects had descended onto a very limited area of not more than 
40 by 50 metres yet there were many other areas of the garden which 
might have been suitable. I checked all round the lawn and flower- 
bed but could not find any termites. It was now more or less obv- 
ious why the termites had chosen this particular site, the termites 
had shed their wings and were travelling head -to tail -.over 
the ground. Had they dispersed or landed in longer grass there 
would have been less chance of couples finding each other. A few 
pairs had commenced burrowing into the soft soil of the flower bed 
and by o8,88 hrs there v/ere few winged specimens left on the lawn; 
shed wings lay everywhere. 
The complete absence of birds at this potential bonanza feast 
rather surprised me but other predators were out and about. Three 
toads were gobbling up the insects in the flower bed while seven 
worked the lawn, A toad appeared 'blind* to numbers 'of insects 
fluttering around it within inches but would raise itself up, 
bulge out its eyes and then take two or three hops to seize a 
termite maybe half a metre away, shooting out a long pink tongue 
to make the capture. 
Other predators were also early on the scene, the large greyish 
Bengalia flies, I v^itnessed a pair of these suddenly rise simult- 
aneously to seize a termite flying about a metre above ground. 
Other flies were capturing the de-alated insects and sucking out 
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