View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Portal de Periódicos Eletrônicos da Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS) Sociobiology 65(2): 291-298 (June, 2018) DOI: 10.13102/sociobiology.v65i2.2844 Sociobiology An international journal on social insects RESEARCH ARTICLE - TERMITES Influence of Food Resource Size on the Foraging Behavior of Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky) TS Souza1, VS Gazal1,2, VJ Fernandes1, ACC Oliveira3, EL Aguiar-Menezes1,2 1 - Programa de Pós-Graduação em Fitossanidade e Biotecnologia Aplicada, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), Seropédica-RJ, Brazil 2 - Departamento Entomologia e Fitopatologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), Seropédica-RJ, Brazil 3 - Graduação em Agronomia, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), Seropédica-RJ, Brazil Article History Abstract In general, termite foraging can be affected by physical and chemical factors Edited by linked to food. This study investigated if the wood length of Eucalyptus grandis Alexandre Vasconcellos, UFPB, Brazil Received 11 January 2018 W. Hill ex Maiden, as a food resource, influences the behavior of foraging events Initial acceptance 19 March 2018 of Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky). Nests with mature and active colonies Final acceptance 04 April 2018 were collected in the field and transferred to glass cubes connected to a test Publication date 09 July 2018 arena under laboratory conditions. Wooden blocks ofE. grandis, with a 2.5 x 2.0 cm rectangular cross section, were offered to termites in three different lengths: Keywords Arboreal termites, Nasutitermitinae, 5, 10 and 15 cm. Each test was repeated with 20 nests and lasted 60 minutes, Eucalyptus grandis, foraging behavior, when the following behavioral events and their duration were observed: initial recruitment pattern. exploration, initial recruitment and mass recruitment. At the end of each test, the quantities of termites (total, workers and soldiers) and gnawing workers were Corresponding author determined. The results show that longer blocks favored a higher occurrence Thiago Sampaio de Souza of exploration and initial recruitment. However, the highest mass recruitment Postgraduate Program in Phytosanitary and Applied Biotechnology occurred with the 10 cm blocks. The length of the wood influenced the total Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro number of termites recruited and gnawing workers; both were highest for the Rodovia BR 465, km 7, Bairro UFRRJ 10 cm blocks. There was no significant difference in relation to exploration time Zip Code: 23897-000, Seropédica of the blocks and number of workers and soldiers recruited. Therefore, we Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. conclude that wood length is a factor that can affect N. corniger foraging. E-Mail: [email protected] Introduction as observed in some species of the genus Nasutitermes Dudley (Traniello & Busher, 1985; Traniello & Leuthold, 2000; Andara Termite foraging is a group activity composed of et al., 2004; Gazal et al., 2014a, b). individual actions integrated with patterns organized towards a The arboreal termite Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky) new food source, which involves communicating the location of is widely distributed in Meso-America, from southern Mexico the source to other members of the colony using chemical and to Panama, and South America (Atkinson & Adams, 1997; tactile signals that stimulate the foragers to leave the nest and Torales, 2002; Constantino, 2002; Scheffrahn et al., 2005). In guide them to the discovered food (Traniello & Busher, 1985; the last decades, N. corniger has become of great economic Traniello & Leuthold, 2000; Costa-Leonardo, 2002; Andara et importance due to increasing reports of damage to residences al., 2004). This activity comprises recruitment and aggregation in various Brazilian and Argentinian cities, which have events of individuals that can change over time and, therefore, is a confirmed its status as a pest (Mill, 1991; Menezes et al., dynamic process governed by the nutritional requirements of the 2000; Constantino, 2002; Costa-Leonardo, 2002; Fontes & colony and quantity and/or quality of available food resources, Milano, 2002; Torales, 2002; Albuquerque et al., 2012). Open access journal: http://periodicos.uefs.br/ojs/index.php/sociobiology ISSN: 0361-6525 292 TS Souza, VS Gazal, VJ Fernandes, ACC Oliveira, EL Aguiar-Menezes – Termite recruitment affected by food size As urban pests, Nasutitermes termites have been and larger surface areas (Usher & Ocloo, 1974; Waller & La controlled using chemical insecticides on the nests or by Fage, 1987). removing the nests (United Nations Environment Programme In the laboratory, Howick (1975) evaluated the [UNEP], 2000; Gerozisis et al., 2008), which are often high preference of three termite species for different lengths up in trees and difficult to access or sometimes impossible to of Eucalyptus regnans F. Muell. wood (with the same locate and only the tunnels on walls of infested buildings are shape), which varied from 20 to 100 mm, and observed that visible (Menezes et al., 2000; Fontes & Millano, 2002). Coptotermes acinacicormis (Froggatt) (Rhinotermitidae) and New technologies for termite control, which are Nasutitermes exitiosus (Hill) (Termitidae) prefer longer pieces more environmentally friendly, include a toxic bait system of eucalyptus, unlike Mastotermes darwiniensis (Froggatt) that is efficient for subterranean termites, especially against (Mastotermitidae). Cornelius and Osbrink (2001) observed Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki and Reticulitermes flavipes the effect of wooden pieces of Picea sp., which had the same (Kollar) (Rhinotermitidae); however, the effectiveness of this dimensions in cross section (3.5 x 1 cm) but varied in length system is still unknown for arboreal termites (Su et al., 1995; (4 and 11 cm), on two species of subterranean termite and United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP], 2000; Lee, concluded that R. flavipes consumption was much higher for 2002; Su, 2002; Potter, 2004; Dow AgroSciences, 2013). the longer pieces and that C. formosanus consumption was In this system, particularly in the Sentricon™ Colony not affected by this factor. Elimination System, two pieces of untreated wood of equal With the goal of selecting E. grandis wood of adequate size (approximately 2 cm x 20 cm) are placed in a tube-shaped size to use as monitoring bait for N. corniger, we verified if this artefact in the soil to monitor the insects. When the insects physical factor influences the foraging behavior of this termite. are detected on the wood, the pieces are substituted with bait impregnated with insecticide that inhibits insect growth, such Material and Methods as hexaflumuron (Potter, 2004; Ogg et al., 2006). Su et al. Collection of termite nests (1995) described a prototype of a monitoring station that uses wooden pieces of Picea sp. (Pinaceae) that are approximately Nests of N. corniger that had active and mature colonies 2.5 x 4.0 x 28 cm and baited with hexaflumuron, which was found (with the presence of winged individuals) and were 40 cm to be efficient at controlling subterranean termite colonies near wide and 60 cm tall were removed from trees in the park buildings in Florida. However, the lack of information about Parque Frei Leão Vellozzo between December 2016 and May the mechanisms of food finding by termites, particularly for 2017. The park is an Atlantic Forest reserve maintained by recruitment and orientation behavior, limits the use of a toxic the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) that is bait system for Nasutitermes (Waller & La Fage, 1987). located on the Catalão Peninsula in the municipality of Rio de Despite the increasing importance of N. corniger as Janeiro, RJ, Brazil (22°50’44”S, 43°13’19”W). Taxonomic a pest, little is known about its foraging behavior in relation identification was made using the nest architecture described to exploration of food resources; although, there is a record by Thorne (1981) and collected soldiers (Scheffrahn et al., 2005). that N. corniger selects wood based on the species and that The nests were collected in black, 100-liter plastic bags and it prefers the wood of Eucalyptus grandis W. Hill ex Maiden placed in cardboard boxes to avoid them from being damaged (Myrtaceae) more than Pinus elliottii Engelm (Pinaceae) during transport to the laboratory at the Centro Integrado de (Gazal et al., 2010). In addition, the degree of decomposition Manejo de Pragas (CIMP) of the Departamento de Entomologia (Gazal et al., 2012) and chemical stimuli of wood (Gazal et e Fitopatologia at Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro al., 2014a) also influence attraction, as well as substances of (UFRRJ), in the municipality of Seropédica, RJ, Brazil. the salivary gland of N. corniger workers, which can have an aggregation or arrestant effect, and possibly pheromone Termite maintenance in the laboratory substances in the feces that aid this species in the exploratory In the laboratory each collected nest was placed in a orientation of cellulosic substrates (Gazal et al., 2014b). transparent glass cube (50.0 cm x 50.0 cm x 60.0 cm tall), Other factors can also affect the selection of a food supported on a Styrofoam plate, containing a 5.0 cm layer resource by xylophagous termites, such as size, shape, volume of sterilized sand (Fig 1). The termites had free access to the and position of the food, surface