Petersen Kirstin, Bardunias Paul, Napp Nils, Werfel Justin, Nagpal Radhika, Turner Scott
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, 60 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Syracuse, New York 13210, USA.
Behav Processes. 2015 Jul;116:8-11. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2015.04.004. Epub 2015 Apr 9.
The construction of termite nests has been suggested to be organized by a stigmergic process that makes use of putative cement pheromone found in saliva and recently manipulated soil ("nest material"), hypothesized to specifically induce material deposition by workers. Herein, we tracked 100 individuals placed in arenas filled with a substrate of half nest material, half clean soil, and used automatic labeling software to identify behavioral states. Our findings suggest that nest material acts to arrest termites; termites prefer to spend time on nest material when compared against clean soil. Residency time was significantly greater, and all construction behaviors occurred significantly more often on nest material. The arrestant function of nest material must be accounted for in experiments that seek semiochemical cues for the organization of labor. Future research will focus on the manner in which termites combine olfaction with tactile cues as well as other organizing factors during construction.
白蚁巢穴的构建被认为是由一种 stigmergic 过程组织的，该过程利用了在唾液和最近处理过的土壤（“巢穴材料”）中发现的假定的水泥信息素，据推测这种信息素能特异性地诱导工蚁进行材料沉积。在此，我们追踪了 100 只被放置在充满一半巢穴材料、一半干净土壤基质的实验场地中的白蚁，并使用自动标记软件来识别行为状态。我们的研究结果表明，巢穴材料会使白蚁停留；与干净土壤相比，白蚁更喜欢在巢穴材料上停留。在巢穴材料上的停留时间显著更长，并且所有的构建行为在巢穴材料上发生的频率也显著更高。在寻求用于劳动组织的化学信号线索的实验中，必须考虑巢穴材料的滞留功能。未来的研究将聚焦于白蚁在构建过程中将嗅觉与触觉线索以及其他组织因素相结合的方式。
