Table 1.

Summary of traits that differ between the two study species.

Traits	Z. nevadensis	M. natalensis
Social complexity	Less complex	Highly complex
Life type	Wood-dwelling single-piece nester	Foraging multiple-piece nester
Developmental plasticity	Totipotent workers and a single linear developmental pathway	Restricted developmental options for both workers and reproductives; bifurcated development
Food and digestion	Decaying wood, digested with the help of protists and bacterial gut symbionts	Dead plant material (incl. wood), which is primarily decomposed by symbiotic Termitomyces fungi, with additional roles of gut bacteria
Potential pathogen load	Predicted to be high, mainly because the logs inhabited by dampwood termites also harbor many wood-decaying fungi	Predicted to be high, with sources being mainly soil microbes and wood-decaying fungi carried to the nest with the substrate particles
Geographic distribution	Temperate	Tropical and sub-tropical

Traits 1–3 co-vary in termites in that wood-dwelling termites with totipotent workers are always less socially complex, while foraging termites are more socially complex with workers having restricted developmental options. However, huge trait variability exists within foraging species, see also Figure 1.