7 documents found, page 1 of 1

A novel exocrine structure of the bicellular unit type in the thorax of termites

Studying the thorax of some Termitidae species, we found two pairs of hitherto unknown lateral glands in the mesothorax and metathorax of both workers and soldiers. The glands consist of distinct clusters of class 3 secretory cells accompanied by their duct cells, located in the upper lateral portion of the thoracic wall. Ultrastructural observations reveal numerous mitochondria, a well-developed Golgi apparatu...

Allometric scaling of patrolling rate and nest volume in Constrictotermes cyphe...

Structural and functional traits of organisms are known to be related to the size of individuals and to the size of their colonies when they belong to one. Among such traits, propensity to inquilinism in termites is known to relate positively to colony size. Larger termitaria hold larger diversity of facultative inquilines than smaller nests, whereas obligate inquilines seem unable to settle in nests smaller th...

Mutual use of trail-following chemical cues by a termite host and its inquiline

Termite nests are often secondarily inhabited by other termite species ( = inquilines) that cohabit with the host. To understand this association, we studied the trail-following behaviour in two Neotropical species, Constrictotermes cyphergaster (Termitidae: Nasutitermitinae) and its obligatory inquiline, Inquilinitermes microcerus (Termitidae: Termitinae). Using behavioural experiments and chemical analyses, w...

Task performance of Midden Workers of Atta sexdens rubropilosa Forel (Hymenopte...

Material brought to midden piles of leaf-cutting ants is considered to be hazardous. It is therefore expected that midden workers should not re-enter the colony, to reduce pathogen transmission. Here, we examined whether the midden workers of Atta sexdens rubropilosa remain confined to the waste compartment and, if not, whether they could perform many different behaviors in the absence of specialized nestmates....

Heterospecific detection of host alarm cues by an inquiline termite species (Bl...

Artigo da Entomologia; Termite inquilines specialize on living in and feeding on a host termite nest. However, the mechanisms allowing survival of two mutually hostile populations confined to a single nest are not understood. Here we report on inquiline termites that respond to their host's alarm cues. Upon detecting these cues, the inquilines do not join in with the host's nest defence, but use this informatio...

Diet segregation between cohabiting builder and inquiline termite species

How do termite inquilines manage to cohabit termitaria along with the termite builder species? With this in mind, we analysed one of the several strategies that inquilines could use to circumvent conflicts with their hosts, namely, the use of distinct diets. We inspected overlapping patterns for the diets of several cohabiting Neotropical termite species, as inferred from carbon and nitrogen isotopic signatures...

Controle de Acromyrmex subterraneus molestans Santschi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae...