Unexpected romance in the realm of insects

Okay, we have to talk. About termites. Gay termites, actually. Well, let me give you a short reminder on how termites usually live. A termite hive has a female that lays the eggs, called the queen and her offspring make up the worker and soldier castes of the hive. Sounds similar to ants and bees so far but there are some striking differences! One of these is that termites are way ahead in terms of equal rights than those matriarchal hymenopteres - not only are their worker and soldier castes made up by female and male animals, their mating also doesn't end in the males dying. Actually, the female and male don't mate during their nuptial flight but just meet there, then they build a shelter together and here they mate and raise their first children, relying on them for the further growth of the colony while queen and king live as a happy couple, producing more and more termites.

The hive may hide unexpected drama...

But what happens when fertile males don't find a female during their mating flight? Well, usually they have to die alone but at least in some termite species they found an alternative strategy - if they meet another lonely male they stop looking for a female, build a shelter and live together there. They even mate and as their mating behavior is different than that they use with females, you could consider that genuine gay insect sex and not just a desperate error.

"But..." you may ask "why? Aren't only those genes successful that lead to reproduction? How could specific gay behavior arise in insects? Is this finally proof of a gay creator?" Well, no, it isn't. Actually there seem to be some real benefits to having a gay relationship when you are a termite. The first is that termites in gay couples live much longer than those who struggle on their own. And sometimes the gay couples are able to take over a nearby hive, killing the king and one of them becomes the new king - the other one, well... maybe he can take over one day when his former gay lover dies...

It therefore seems that forming a gay couple is a good strategy, since even though your chances of one day taking over a colony may be very low, your chances of survival on your own are even lower. So the next time you meet some conservative parents who complain about their son's plans to move in with his boyfriend, just sneer at their lack of understanding on how to make it to the ranks of royalty!

Further reading: Male same-sex pairing as an adaptive strategy for future reproduction in termites (Mizumoto et al., Animal behavior, 2016)