Most species are rarely seen, having a cryptic life-history where they remain hidden within the galleries and tunnels of their nests for most of their lives. Their colonies range in size from a few hundred individuals to enormous societies with several million individuals. Termite colonies are commonly described as superorganisms due to the collective behaviors of the individuals which form a self-governing entity: the colony itself. Also unlike ants, which undergo a complete metamorphosis, termites undergo an incomplete metamorphosis that proceeds through egg, nymph, and adult stages. Unlike ants, most colonies begin from reproductively mature individuals called a "king" and "queen" which form a lifelong monogamous pair. Similarly to ants and some bees and wasps from the separate order Hymenoptera, most termites have an analogous "worker" and "soldier" caste system consisting of mostly sterile individuals which are morphologically and behaviorally distinct. More recent estimates suggest that they have an origin during the Late Jurassic, with the first fossil records in the Early Cretaceous. Previous estimates suggested the divergence took place during the Jurassic or Triassic. Termites were once classified in a separate order from cockroaches, but recent phylogenetic studies indicate that they evolved from cockroaches, as they are deeply nested within the group, and the sister group to wood eating cockroaches of the genus Cryptocercus. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattodea (along with cockroaches). About 2,972 extant species are currently described, 2,105 of which are members of the family Termitidae. They are distinguished by their moniliform antennae and the soft-bodied and typically unpigmented worker caste for which they have been colloquially termed " white ants" however, they are not ants to which they are distantly related. Termites are a group of detritophagous eusocial insects which consume a wide variety of decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, and soil humus.
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