I just spent yesterday digging up some termite mounds with some Dutch researchers. Actually, it was two Dutch, one Finn, a South African, and an American. No, we did not walk into a bar, but we did go to a farm near Naboomspruit (about an hour and a half north of Pretoria) to search for hidden treasure under some termite nests.
Our quarry was the fungal gardens of Macrotermes natalensis, which are a basidiomycete species of Termitomyces. Also present were the nests of a symbiotic termite, Microtermes sp. which uses a different species of Termitomyces.
We dug up one nest and got lots of fungal treasure, then dug up another nest for several hours to find no fungus. We probably got a meter and a quarter down and NO FUNGUS (just a little bit of Microtermes' fungus). Well, that was a lot of picking and shoveling for a disappointing return.
It's been pretty dry, so the termites might have moved shop down further below the surface to keep the garden moist and cool. Who knows.
Here's a pic of the Dutch digging at a nest.
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