a brief history of the D&D water termite

A few months ago, a poster in the Something Awful OSR thread asked about the origins of water termites. I didn't remember the monster at all, but it's written up in the Mentzer BECMI Expert set, across from an illustration I remember quite well: (Not a standard Tyrannosaurus, but still scary.) But it turns out the large little aquatic roaches originated in the Moldvay B/X Expert set: I didn't have…