Food Preference of Termite (Microcerotermes diversus Silv.) for Forest Trees in Erbil Governorate

Abstract

The current study investigated the sensitivity of different wood species to the termite, Microcerotermes diversus, in two different locations. The results showed that both softwood and hardwood of White Willow, Salix alba; Melia, Melia azedarach; pine, Pinus brutia and Mediterranean Cypress, Cupressus sempervirens are highly susceptible to the termite invasion under physically infection conditions in Sami Abdulrahman Park, Erbil city, Iraq. Moreover, the sensitivity of the species to the termite invasion was significantly different under natural infection in Grdarasha after 22 weeks from early April to the end of September 2017. In addition, the White Willow (Salix alba) species showed more sensitivity to the termite infection in comparison with others species, where the mean of wood green weight, wood dry weight (before infection), wood dry weight (after infection) and specific gravity loss during the period of experiment of the White Willow were 2.2609g, 2.1584g, 1.5983g and 0.5139 respectively. Furthermore, Cupressus sempervirens was more resistant in comparison with other wood species to the termite in both locations where green weight of wood 3.010g and Dry weight of wood (after infection) 2.287g, Dry weight of wood (befor infection) 2.877g and Specific gravity 0.685. Generally, this study revealed that there is no definite association between both physical properties and moisture content of softwoods and hardwoods with termite preference.