Nesting and foraging of arboreal termites (Blattodea: Termitidae) in tree species of the reserve area of the Island of Catalão of UFRJ, RJ
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36560/16220231668Keywords:
Arboreal Termites, foraging preference, nesting preference, Nasutitermes cornigerAbstract
This study aimed to verify, under field conditions, whether the arboreal termites associated with tree species present in the Reserve Area of the Island of Catalão, UFRJ, RJ show preference for nesting and foraging between the tree species. For this, 95 tree planting lines located in this area were randomly selected. In these lines, a 100 m path was covered, also chosen at random, and during this path all the trees were inspected to verify the occurrence of nests and foraging of arboreal termites. Of the total of 1090 trees inspected, 31% were infested by arboreal termites, and two species were identified: Nasutitermes corniger Motschulsky 1855 (Termitidae: Nasutitermitinae) and Microcerotermes strunckii Soerensen 1884 (Termitidae: Termitinae). Thus, exogenous nests of arboreal termites were found in 4.0% (47) of the inspected trees (n=1090). Furthermore, only 12% (46) of the trees infested by these termites (n=382) had exogenous nests, and all these nests were active and belonged to the N. corniger species. The tree species Schimus terebinthifolius (Aroeira-pimenta; Anancardiaceae) was the most nested by N. corniger (48% of the nesting trees), followed by Albizia lebbeck (Albizia; Fabaceae) (23%) (χ2 =7.6; g.l.= 4; p<0.01). However, the occurrence of N.corniger nesting was higher in native tree species (69%) (n=79) than in exotic species (27%) (n=31) (χ2 =12.77; g.l.=1 ; p<0.01). On the other hand, N.corniger showed no foraging preference between Native tree species (54%) (n=179) and Exotic species (37%) (n=124) (χ2 =2.1; g.l.=1; p >0.05). However, M.strunckii foraged only on Native tree species and similarly. Therefore, the trees in the Reserve Area of the Island of the Catalão are nested only by the arboreal termite N.corniger, which prefers to nest in native tree species, and does not present a foraging preference between native and exotic tree species, while M. strunckii prefers to forage only in native tree species.
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