Differential time allocation of foraging workers in the subterranean termite

Frontiers in Zoology

Sang-Bin Lee¹  Nan-Yao Su¹  Thomas Chouvenc¹ 

[1] Department of Entomology and Nematology, Ft. Lauderdale Research and Education Center, University of Florida, 3205 College Avenue, 33314, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA;

关键词: Social insect;    C. formosanus;    Foraging behavior;    Task division;    Task allocation;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12983-021-00446-5

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundForaging in group living animals such as social insects, is collectively performed by individuals. However, our understanding on foraging behavior of subterranean termites is extremely limited, as the process of foraging in the field is mostly concealed. Because of this limitation, foraging behaviors of subterranean termites were indirectly investigated in the laboratory through tunnel geometry analysis and observations on tunneling behaviors. In this study, we tracked subsets of foraging workers from juvenile colonies of Coptotermes formosanus (2-yr-old) to describe general foraging behavioral sequences and to find how foraging workers allocate time between the foraging site (food acquisition or processing) and non-foraging site (food transportation).ResultsOnce workers entered into the foraging site, they spent, on average, a significantly longer time at the foraging site than the non-foraging site. Our clustering analysis revealed two different types of foraging workers in the subterranean termite based on the duration of time they spent at the foraging site and their foraging frequency. After entering the foraging site, some workers (cluster 1) immediately initiated masticating wood fragments, which they transferred as food boluses to recipient workers at the foraging site. Conversely, the recipient workers (cluster 2) moved around after entering the foraging site and received food from donating workers.ConclusionsThis study provides evidence of task specialization within foraging cohorts in subterranean termites.

【 授权许可】

CC BY