A Laboratory Maintenance Regime for a Fungus-Growing Termite Macrotermes gilvus (Blattodea: Termitidae)

Abstract

The optimum maintenance conditions of the fungus-growing termite, Macrotermes gilvus (Hagen) (Blattodea: Termitidae), in the laboratory were studied. Termites were kept on a matrix of moist sand and with fungus comb as food. The survival of groups of termites was measured when maintained at different population densities by changing group size and container volume. Larger groups (≥0.6 g) were more vigorous and had significant higher survival rates than smaller groups (≤0.3 g). The population density for optimal survival of M. gilvus is 0.0025 g per container volume (ml) or 0.0169 g per matrix volume (cm(3)), i.e., 1.2 g of termites kept in a 480-ml container filled with 71 cm3 of sand. In termite groups of smaller size (i.e., 0.3 g) or groups maintained in smaller container (i.e., 100 ml) the fungus comb was overgrown with Xylaria spp., and subsequently all termites died within the study period. The insufficient number of workers for regulating the growth of unwanted fungi other than Termitomyces spp. in the fungus comb is the most likely reason. Unlike some other mound-building termite species, M. gilvus showed satisfactory survival when maintained in non-nutritious matrix (i.e., sand). There was no significant difference in the survival rate between different colonies of M. gilvus (n=5), with survival in the range of 78.5-84.4% after 4 wk. Advances in the maintenance of Macrotermes will enable researchers to study with more biological relevance many aspects of the biology, behavior, and management of this species.

Threat of Subterranean Termites Attack in the Asian Countries and their Control: A Review

“…The optimal proportion of soldiers for a species has apparently evolved through selection of the mix of castes that will minimize the energy expended in producing the maximum number of virgin males and females while maintaining adequate defense of the colony (Wilson, 1971). Many studies on distribution and abundance of termites, such as Lee and Lee (2011) had been study to understand population size and caste composition. They found that workers constituted the largest proportion (44.77%) of the total number, followed by larvae (39.09%), soldiers (15.37%) and pre-soldier (0.77%).…”

You don’t have the guts: a diverse set of fungi survive passage through Macrotermes bellicosus termite guts

“…However, despite being in close contact with substrates containing potentially competing fungi [19], intact fungus-growing termite colonies do not appear to have antagonistic fungi growing within fungal combs, with 99.9% of Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) amplicon reads being of the mutualistic Termitomyces [8]. However, if colonies are physically compromised or workers are removed from the fungus comb, Termitomyces is rapidly infested and overgrown by generalist fungi [20] and members of the specialist fungal sub-genus Pseudoxylaria (Ascomycota: Xylariaceae) [21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”

Metagenomic 16S rRNA amplicon data of gut microbial diversity in three species of subterranean termites (Coptotermes gestroi, Globitermes sulphureus and Macrotermes gilvus)

“…All samples were collected from the termite underground stations located in USM, Penang, Malaysia, except for those of the G. sulphureus which were excavated from the termite mound. These samples were identified based on the standard taxonomic keys of the soldier caste due to the distinctive characteristics among the genera [ 1 , [9] , [10] , [11] ]. Approximately 50 individuals of termite workers per species were cleaned twice with ethanol and once with sterile distilled water to discard any soil debris and to minimise the risk of contamination by the soil microbiomes.…”