Permanent exhibition

In the gallery with the giraffe in the middle, insects share the antique vitrines with invertebrates such as millipedes, spiders, crustaceans and molluscs. They show the enormous diversity of shape in the animal kingdom. A number of remarkable species are dealt with separately.

• Termites: master builders
  
  There are more than 2,000 different sorts of termites (from the Latin tarmes: small woodworm). They evolved from cockroach-like ancestors and they form separate order (Isoptera). Thus they don’t belong to the Hymenoptera, like ants, wasps and bees.
  
  Millions of termites live together in a colony, in a sort of super-organized caste system which consists of three groups: the workers, the soldiers and the reproductives. The colossal queen can grow up to 15 centimetres long and can live for more than ten years, laying thousands of eggs every day. The royal chamber, where the fertile specimens stay, is in the centre of the nest, surrounded by the living and working spaces of the other castes. The nest also has a food storage area and a ‘nursery’.
  
  Termites build the hard walls of their nests with thoroughly chewed wood, or earth mixed with saliva. An ingenious system of ducts and tiny ventilation holes keeps out the heat, while a complex network of tunnels and passageways allows the termites to move easily about. Some nests even have a subterranean water supply.

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