Ft. Lauderdale Research and Education Center, Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
J Econ Entomol. 2019 Dec 9;112(6):2882-2887. doi: 10.1093/jee/toz211.
As a social insect, termites have different castes and division of labor in a colony. Investigating the social behavior of subterranean termites is a challenge due to the cryptic nature and large colony size. Planar arenas are commonly used to study these termites under laboratory conditions, and have provided several advantages. However, there is no means to designate areas such as a royal chamber or central nest from foraging sites because reproductives can move freely across arenas. In this study, we examined the minimum passing size of different castes of Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae), in order to develop a reproductive excluder and correlated minimum passing size with head widths and heights. We found that workers and soldiers of C. formosanus were able to pass through a gap greater than or equal to 0.7 mm. Our results showed that there are significant differences in the head width and height based on castes and head height was more critical than head width to determine passing size. We further confirmed feasibilities of the reproductive excluders using incipient colonies of C. formosanus. Confining reproductives using the excluder in laboratory experiments will provide more chances to study the royal chamber and central nest independently of foraging sites.
作为一种社会性昆虫，白蚁在蚁群中有不同的品级和分工。由于地下白蚁的隐蔽性和大群体规模，研究其社会行为是一个挑战。平面竞技场通常用于在实验室条件下研究这些白蚁，并具有几个优点。然而，由于繁殖蚁可以在竞技场中自由移动，因此无法从觅食地指定如王室或中心巢等区域。在这项研究中，我们检查了不同品级的台湾乳白蚁（Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki）（Blattodea： Rhinotermitidae）的最小通过尺寸，以开发一种繁殖隔离器，并将最小通过尺寸与头宽和头高相关联。我们发现，台湾乳白蚁的工蚁和兵蚁能够通过大于或等于 0.7 毫米的间隙。我们的结果表明，不同品级的头宽和头高存在显著差异，而且头高比头宽更能决定通过尺寸。我们进一步通过台湾乳白蚁的初始群体证实了繁殖隔离器的可行性。在实验室实验中使用隔离器来限制繁殖蚁，将为独立于觅食地研究王室和中心巢提供更多机会。
