Still, single in-door emergence flights of tens of thousands of alates are not unusual. This is the one moment in a termite's life when she is free to cut loose from the group and to pursue her own desires and romantic interests. But, ninety-nine percent of alates die due to weather conditions or predators. Of the one percent that do find a mate and manage to start a colony a further ninety percent succumb to frosts, floods, drought, or molds in the first year. Very few survive to successfully raise a new colony.
Alate emergence is followed by individual dispersal flights.
The termites are not acting as a swarm. A swarm is an organized movement of insects such as a mating swarm or a dispersal swarm of worker honeybees. Pictured here are more emergence holes. These are covered by mud chambers which were probably built by workers. The chambers pictured here would hardly qualify as flight platforms.