High gene flow between populations of Macrotermes michaelseni (Isoptera, Termitidae)

Brandl, Roland; Hacker, Mariana A.; Epplen, Jörg T.; Kaib, Manfred

doi:10.1007/s00040-005-0820-2

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…In spite of their reputation of being weak flyers (Nutting, 1969; Mill, 1983), alates of 20 of 24 ground‐dwelling species reached at least a height of 21 m, and 17 of them reached at least 28 m. These data suggest that flying high is an important feature of dispersal for tropical rainforest termites and support previous genetic works which hypothesised a long dispersal distance in alates of several termite species (Brandl et al. , 2005; Husseneder et al.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Insights into the termite assemblage of a neotropical rainforest from the spatio‐temporal distribution of flying alates

Bourguignon¹,

Leponce²,

Roisin³

2009

Insect Conserv Diversity

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Abstract. 1. During the last decade, many studies have focused on the diversity of termite species and their ecological function, but these have been mostly based on transect protocols not designed to sample canopy‐dwelling and subterranean species. Additionally, all these studies relied upon collections of foraging parties composed of workers and soldiers in the soil or in pieces of wood. 2. We hypothesised that alate‐based protocols could disclose spatial and temporal patterns of termite flights and provide a more balanced picture of assemblages for ecological and biodiversity surveys. 3. Our study took place in the framework of the IBISCA‐Panama project, which used numerous trapping methods to give a multifaceted overview of a complex tropical rainforest arthropod community. Two methods, flight interception traps and light traps, were efficient at collecting termite alates. All collected specimens were assigned to morphospecies which were later identified to the genus or species level, when possible. 4. Our results highlighted that: (i) alate trapping represents a powerful complement to ground‐based standardised sampling protocols by allowing the documentation of the whole termite assemblage. (ii) Canopy dwellers fly preferentially in the upper strata, whereas no vertical stratification was found for ground dwellers, suggesting that height of flight is dictated by a pressure for long distance dispersal as well as the need to find a suitable site for colony‐founding. (iii) Alates from closely related species do not stagger their flight period to avoid hybridisation but rather synchronise their flights according to environmental factors.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Insights into the termite assemblage of a neotropical rainforest from the spatio‐temporal distribution of flying alates

Bourguignon¹,

Leponce²,

Roisin³

2009

Insect Conserv Diversity

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“…Another explanation could be that the small colonies are related to the large ones nearby, and thus, are not eliminated because the strength of competition between genetically related colonies should be less strong than among non-related colonies, as found by Kaib et al (2004). However, Brandl et al (2005) suggest that budding is absent in Macrotermes michaelseni in East Africa. Darlington (1982) proposed that the removal of nascent colonies prevents the durable establishment of younger colonies in the territories of mature ones, but according to Abe and Darlington (1985), subterranean colonies are able to survive close to mature ones in small areas into which the mature colonies do not extend their subterranean galleries.…”

Section: Spatial Relationship Between Small and Large Inhabited Moundsmentioning

confidence: 88%

Multi-scale pattern analysis of a mound-building termite species

et al. 2010

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Termite mounds are a widespread feature in most African savannas. These structures exhibit high nutrient contents and often host a special vegetation composition. In this study, we analysed mound distribution patterns of a fungus-growing termite species, Macrotermes michaelseni, an important ecosystem engineer in the savannas of Namibia. Inhabited mounds taller than 0.7 m were regularly distributed. We view this pattern as a result of intraspecific competition. The heights of mounds taller than 0.7 m were correlated positively with their distance, such that mounds closer together, i.e. up to inter-mound distances of approximately 50 m, tended to be smaller than average. This indicates that intraspecific competition for foraging areas controls mound distribution pattern and colony size. Differences between mound heights increased on the spatial scale up to inter-mound distances of 80 m. We assume that the foundation of new colonies is only possible in unoccupied patches. In such patches, young colonies are able to occur close together as they have a relatively low foraging demand and therefore a low spatial demand. In contrast, their critical distance to taller colonies with higher foraging demands is rather large, which leads to the observed increasing difference of mound heights with increasing distances between them.

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“…, and Brandl et al . who used one and two samples per colony, respectively). To test whether a sample size of five individuals per colony is sufficient to estimate genetic diversity, we performed the analyses for subpopulation B with a sample size of ten and an arbitrarily selected subsample of five individuals per colony.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We found a maximum of four alleles per locus and colony, which is consistent with colony foundation by two (unrelated) individuals (see Results section). Because the emphasis of this study was to analyse the population structure rather than the breeding system, we reduced the sample size of genotypes per colony and instead sampled more subpopulations (see also Garcia et al 2002and Brandl et al 2005 who used one and two samples per colony, respectively). To test whether a sample size of five individuals per colony is sufficient to estimate genetic diversity, we performed the analyses for subpopulation B with a sample size of ten and an arbitrarily selected subsample of five individuals per colony.…”

Section: Genotypingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isolated in an ocean of grass: low levels of gene flow between termite subpopulations

2013

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Habitat fragmentation is one of the most important causes of biodiversity loss, but many species are distributed in naturally patchy habitats. Such species are often organized in highly dynamic metapopulations or in patchy populations with high gene flow between subpopulations. Yet, there are also species that exist in stable patchy habitats with small subpopulations and presumably low dispersal rates. Here, we present population genetic data for the 'magnetic' termite Amitermes meridionalis, which show that short distances between subpopulations do not hinder exceptionally strong genetic differentiation (FST : 0.339; RST : 0.636). Despite the strong genetic differentiation between subpopulations, we did not find evidence for genetic impoverishment. We propose that loss of genetic diversity might be counteracted by a long colony life with low colony turnover. Indeed, we found evidence for the inheritance of colonies by so-called 'replacement reproductives'. Inhabiting a mound for several generations might result in loss of gene diversity within a colony but maintenance of gene diversity at the subpopulation level.

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High gene flow between populations of Macrotermes michaelseni (Isoptera, Termitidae)

Cited by 10 publications

References 33 publications

Insights into the termite assemblage of a neotropical rainforest from the spatio‐temporal distribution of flying alates

Insights into the termite assemblage of a neotropical rainforest from the spatio‐temporal distribution of flying alates

Multi-scale pattern analysis of a mound-building termite species

Isolated in an ocean of grass: low levels of gene flow between termite subpopulations

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