- "What do you know about these termites we are morphing?"
"They're like ants."
"Actually, they're related to cockroaches. I looked them up in one of my mom's books. They have a society like ants, but roaches are closer relatives. They eat cellulose — the stuff in wood. Bacteria in their guts digest the wood. The worker termites... they, um, they eliminate their waste. And the soldier termites kind of eat it. I think, judging from the termite Tobias brought us, that we are going to be morphing soldier termites." - ―Ax, Marco and Cassie[src]
A termite is a colonial insect native to Earth. A soldier termite was acquired and used by the Animorphs, minus Jake and Tobias, to infiltrate the Dapsen Lumber Command Center.
Acquiring
- "Rachel held out her hand. Jake tapped the vial till the insect landed in her palm. I saw it crawl across Rachel's lifeline. And I saw it become still, as Rachel acquired the termite DNA. I imagined being that termite. Crawling across the gigantic hand. Thinking every crease in Rachel's palm was as deep as a ditch. When Rachel was done, I held out my own hand. It was shaking. It was shaking and I couldn't stop it from shaking. The brightly lit mall food court suddenly seemed dark. Lord, that tiny insect scared me. Deep down inside, it truly scared me."
- ―Cassie[src]
The Animorphs acquired a soldier termite in The Secret. While observing the Yeerk Empire's Dapsen Lumber Command Center, Tobias spotted termite holes in the building. When the Controllers disabled the force field around the command center to place removed sections of the building's wood, Tobias flew down and grabbed a soldier termite, which he brought to Jake, who acquired it before allowing Marco and Ax to acquire it as well. Jake then put the termite in a glass vial and brought it with him to the mall where the Animorphs were having a meeting, where he caused the termite to fall onto Rachel's open palm. Rachel then acquired the termite before it could run out of her palm before she passed the termite onto Cassie, who acquired it as well.[1]
Usage
Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Marco, and Ax acquired a soldier termite from the termite colony that lived within the Yeerk Empire's Dapsen Lumber Command Center, intending to use the termite morph to dig under the force field around the command and use the building's termite holes to infiltrate the building. However, due to the security around the compound, an Animorph needed to serve as a distraction to lure the Controllers away, a task that fell onto Jake; as a result, while Jake acquired the termite, he never ended up using it. Rachel, Cassie, Marco, and Ax morphed into soldier termites to bypass the force field, although their bodies were enthralled and controlled by the termite queen, forcing Cassie to kill the termite queen to restore the Animorphs' autonomy. The killing of the termite queen destabilized the termite colony, which Cassie felt immense regret and trauma for as she likened herself to an invader who ruined the termite colony's whole lives,[1] and continued to hold regret over killing the termite queen months later.[2]
While the Animorphs never had reason to morph into termites again, months after the Dapsen infiltration, Rachel suffered from a morphing allergy that caused uncontrollable morphing. During this incident, Rachel found herself uncontrollably morphing into a miniature insect that she realized was either her ant morph or her termite morph, although she was unable to confirm which one she had morphed into.[3]
Appearances
- The Secret (acquired by Jake, Marco, Ax, Rachel, and Cassie; morphed by Rachel, Cassie, Marco, and Ax)
- The Reaction (possible accidental morph by Rachel)
- The Warning (mentioned)
- In the Time of Dinosaurs (mentioned)
- The Departure (mentioned)
- The Discovery (mentioned)
- The Suspicion (mentioned)
- The Attack (mentioned)
- Back to Before (mentioned)