Long known as 'white ants', termites also have large colonies with a disposable worker caste to forage, fight and build, and live in highly populous, complex semi-subterranean nests, overseen by a fertile, egg-laying queen.
But there are significant differences. In appearance, ants have a slim thorax, a tiny, hinge-like node segment at the waist, a bulbous abdomen and distinctive elbowed antennae.
Termites have neither a narrow waist nor kinked antennae, nor do they have the sting or formic acid possessed of most ants.
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Most importantly, newly hatched termites are miniature, mobile versions of the adults and immediately join in the nest processes, whereas ants have legless, maggot-like larvae that have to be fed by the workers until they are large enough to pupate for metamorphic transition into an adult.
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Ants are related to bees and wasps, which also pass through larva and pupa stage before adulthood. Termites are actually social cockroaches.
