Foraging Phenology of the Fungus-Growing Termite Odontotermes formosanus (Blattodea: Termitidae)

Chiu, Chun-I; Yeh, Hsin-Ting; Li, Pai-Ling; Kuo, Chih-Yu; Tsai, Ming-Jer; Li, Hou-Feng

doi:10.1093/ee/nvy140

Cited by 16 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Forage substrate use by fungus-growing termites found in the literature (for a full list of all references and their reported findings, see Table S1 [5,74,75,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119,120,121,122,123,124,125]) mapped on a schematic phylogeny of the subfamily [35]. Species given the same species name or labelled sp.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Symbiotic Plant Biomass Decomposition in Fungus-Growing Termites

Costa

et al. 2019

Insects

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Termites are among the most successful animal groups, accomplishing nutrient acquisition through long-term associations and enzyme provisioning from microbial symbionts. Fungus farming has evolved only once in a single termite sub-family: Macrotermitinae. This sub-family has become a dominant decomposer in the Old World; through enzymatic contributions from insects, fungi, and bacteria, managed in an intricate decomposition pathway, the termites obtain near-complete utilisation of essentially any plant substrate. Here we review recent insights into our understanding of the process of plant biomass decomposition in fungus-growing termites. To this end, we outline research avenues that we believe can help shed light on how evolution has shaped the optimisation of plant-biomass decomposition in this complex multipartite symbiosis.

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Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Symbiotic Plant Biomass Decomposition in Fungus-Growing Termites

Costa

et al. 2019

Insects

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“…In addition, we found that the number of samples with termites was positively correlated with mean annual temperature (Table S8). Since termites are ectotherms and foraging activity generally scales with temperature (Chiu et al, 2018;Fei & Henderson, 2002), the negative effects of increasing minimum temperature on termite foraging intensity could also be mediated by lower mean annual temperature, as we found a negative relationship between minimum temperature and mean annual temperature ( Figure S6).…”

Section: Consistent Effects Of Temperature and Inconsistent Effectsmentioning

confidence: 64%

Wood species identity alters dominant factors driving fine wood decomposition along a tree diversity gradient in subtropical plantation forests

Pietsch

Staab³

et al. 2021

Biotropica

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Microclimate and biotic factors drive wood decomposition. Yet, relatively few studies have been conducted in warmer tropical and subtropical forests compared with colder temperate and boreal forests, where climate might have stronger limitations on decomposition. Besides, conclusions on decomposition are generally based on single wood species or standardized materials. Thus, a general assessment if wood species identity alters dominant factors of decomposition in subtropical forest could improve the predictability of current C cycle models. We measured fine wood massloss rates of seven widespread tree species in southeast China at two time steps (after 1 and 2 years) in subtropical plantation forests with tree species diversity manipulated. We found that termites exceeded fungi in consuming fine woody debris, and termite foraging intensity decreased with lignin content. Tree species diversity increased fungal hyphal coverage on fine wood samples and had different effects on wood mass-loss rates depending on wood species. Higher minimum temperature and amplitude of relative humidity suppressed termite foraging intensity, with humidity having inconsistent effects on mass-loss rates among wood species. Interestingly, microclimate outweighed biotic factors for Castanopsis eyrei but not for the other species. Three traits, that is, wood density, phenolics, and lignin content, were higher than the average for C. eyrei, making it the least attractive species for decomposers. Our findings suggest that species identity influences the effects and relative importance of biotic factors and microclimate for wood decomposition in subtropical forests. Furthermore, species identity effects are possibly mediated by multiple wood traits.

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“…Specifically, Odontotermes termites often build their foraging galleries in dead branches, twigs and other plant debris lying on the ground, and are rarely active on the surface during the day. Thus, they remain protected against epigeic predators (Uys, 2002; Chiu et al ., 2018; Da Costa et al ., 2019). It is difficult for a small arthropod predator to penetrate the wall of these termite galleries, but if a gallery is damaged by other animals (e.g., foraging antelope) or due to heavy rainfall, an access point to foraging termites is made available.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coexistence of two termite‐eating specialists (Araneae)

Pekár

Dušátková

Michálek

et al. 2020

Ecological Entomology

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1. Competition among closely-related specialist predators has rarely been studied, and thus the mechanism of their coexistence remains enigmatic. Interspecific competition among specialised co-occurring predators capturing termites should be high. 2. Here we investigated various niche dimensions, namely temporal, spatial and trophic, of a couple of jumping spider species of the genus Stenaelurillus (Stenaelurillus guttiger and S. modestus) from South Africa, to find whether these two species co-exist and along which niche dimension(s) they differentiate. 3. The two species co-occurred in two out of five study sites. Body size was not significantly different between the species. The phenology was shifted so that one species matured earlier. Circadian activity was not different, as both species were diurnal and active at similar times. Both species preyed almost exclusively on termites. The fundamental trophic niche was very similar and rather narrow. The realised trophic niche at the prey order level of both species was similar, but at the genus level it was different. In S. modestus it was narrower, as it captured mainly Odontotermes, while S. guttiger exploited a few termite species. The size of prey captured was also similar between the two species. The frequency of intraguild predation was negligible. 4. We conclude that both Stenaelurillus species are specialised termitophagous predators. The two species can coexist across broad spatial scales due to spatial segregation on the landscape. At the sites where they co-occur, the two species specialise on different termite prey, promoting local coexistence.

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Foraging Phenology of the Fungus-Growing Termite Odontotermes formosanus (Blattodea: Termitidae)

Cited by 16 publications

References 44 publications

Symbiotic Plant Biomass Decomposition in Fungus-Growing Termites

Symbiotic Plant Biomass Decomposition in Fungus-Growing Termites

Wood species identity alters dominant factors driving fine wood decomposition along a tree diversity gradient in subtropical plantation forests

Coexistence of two termite‐eating specialists (Araneae)

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