Termites?

One morning, I was ready for school, when I saw this at the ground floor of our house. I don't exactly know the name of this but my MoM says in Kadazan language, it is called 'tanai'. So I make my own assumption, it could be related to Termites. To me, it's just an ordinary insects.

But, what amazed me was, to see this. How is it possible the insects could form/group such a way like the picture above?

Strange, isn't it? It's weird and at the same time, it's creepy. Mom asked us to sweep them away but it wasn't an easy task ;) We used a dust-pan and sweep them slowly.