Brazil Termites Built Giant Nation

In 2018, scientists discovered that termites in northeastern Brazil had built about 200 million mounds across an area roughly the size of Great Britain. The mounds were up to about 3 meters tall, spaced around 20 meters apart, and built by the termite species Syntermes dirus. Researchers dated some mounds to as old as 3,820 years and estimated that the insects had moved about 10 cubic kilometers of soil. That amount equals roughly 4,000 Great Pyramids of Giza, making the site one of the largest known bioengineering projects by a single insect species.

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