{{Short description|Species of termite}} {{one source|date=December 2024}} {{Speciesbox | image = Syntermes dirus (Martin and all, 2018).png | genus = Syntermes | species = dirus | authority = (Burmeister, 1839) }}
'''''Syntermes dirus''''' is a species of termite native to Brazil which forage in the open for dead leaves, twigs etcetera. They build mounds up to {{cvt|2.4|m}} high which may require 4,000 years to complete.{{cn|date=July 2025}} One complex of mounds, termed a "megacity" covers {{cvt|230,000|km2}}, larger than the island of Great Britain, and is said to be visible from space.{{cn|date=July 2025}} Their activities have thus far involved the moving of {{cvt|10|km3}} of soil, enough to make four thousand stacks each the size of the Pyramid of Cheops.<ref>{{cite book | editor= Craig Glenday | date=2021 | title= Guinness Book of Records 2022 |location= London | publisher= SVP Global Publishing | page= 37 | isbn= 978-1-913484-10-1 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Martin |first1=Stephen J. |last2=Funch |first2=Roy R. |last3=Hanson |first3=Paul R. |last4=Yoo |first4=Eun-Hye |date=2018-11-19 |title=A vast 4,000-year-old spatial pattern of termite mounds |url=http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/48314/8/PIIS0960982218312879.pdf |journal=Current Biology |volume=28 |issue=22 |pages=R1292–R1293 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2018.09.061 |bibcode=2018CBio...28R1292M |issn=0960-9822|doi-access=free }}</ref> Of the nine most common species of termite in the Distrito Federal (Brasilia), ''Syntermes dirus'' is by far the largest, with soldiers averaging 117.3 micrograms (six times the weight of the second largest) and a length of 15.57 mm.{{cn|date=July 2025}} This species forages at night for grass, leaves, both green and recently fallen. These are eaten as is, there apparently being no fungus gardens.{{cn|date=July 2025}} In Brasilia the nests extend {{cvt|1.5|m|ft|0}} beneath the mound.<ref>{{cite web | url= https://onlinelibrary.wiley.onlinelibrary.com/doi/pdf/10.1155/1982/36726 | last1=Coles de Negret |first1= Helen R. | last2= Redford | first2= Kent H. |title= The Biology of Nine Termite Species (Isoptera; Termitidae) from the cerrado of central Brazil | date= 1982 | access-date= December 30, 2024 }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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dirus Category:Insects of Brazil Category:Taxa named by Hermann Burmeister
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