Regulation of macronutrient intake in termites: A dietary self-selection experiment

Abstract

Many animals have been shown to select among nutritionally complementary foods to reach a specific balance of nutrients that optimizes key life history traits. Nutritional ecology theory, however, predicts that an animal with a diet that is very stable in its composition, and with nutritional requirements that do not vary in their balance through time, would not need to display such mechanisms of regulation. Here we use the Australian termite Nasutitermes exitiosus as a model to test this prediction for the first time. We used the nutritional geometric framework to investigate the regulation of carbohydrate and protein, as well as the effects on foraging behaviour of protein type and group caste composition and size. Our results support the prediction of nutritional ecology, as termites failed to actively defend a well-defined macronutrient ratio. Termites maintained food collection relatively constant across protein type and group composition, and only appear to vary their collection by avoiding diets too rich in protein.

The remoulding of dietary effects on the fecundity / longevity trade-off in a social insect

“…As complete wood blocks were enriched with nitrogen in the Z. angusticollis study, the termites could not adjust nitrogen intake separately from wood intake, which they could do in our study. The foraging workers of the termite species N. exitiosus did not regulate the quantity of food they collected and only avoided diets very high in protein which have a negative effect on worker life span [ 29 , 47 ]. Direct comparisons to our study are difficult as treatments differed and both of these studies did not investigate life history consequences at the individual scale, i.e., relating individual consumption rates to individual life span/fecundity.…”

Dual‐fluorescence imaging and automated trophallaxis detection for studying multi‐nutrient regulation in superorganisms

“…Furthermore, tracking different materials in the trophallactic fluid is expected to be useful in other contemporary research subjects, including: the trade‐offs between food and pathogen transmission through contact networks (Csata & Dussutour, 2019; Sendova‐Franks et al., 2010; Stroeymeyt et al., 2018), the different nutritional needs within colonies and their close symbionts (Crumière et al., 2020), the control of microbial communities ingested with food (Sclocco & Teseo, 2020) and regulatory effects of trophallactic fluid on differential larval development (LeBoeuf et al, 2016, 2018). Importantly, this method can potentially be applicable to other trophallaxis‐performing insects, including various species of ants (Czaczkes et al., 2019), bees (Fard et al., 2020), wasps (Suryanarayanan & Jeanne, 2008; Taylor & Jeanne, 2018) and termites (Poissonnier et al., 2018, 2020). Finally, considering the growing interest in the function and properties of trophallaxis networks, we hope that data generated using our method could provide a fascinating new ground to explore.…”

“…performing insects, including various species of ants (Czaczkes et al, 2019), bees (Fard, Bradley, and Peleg, 2020), wasps (Suryanarayanan and Robert L. Jeanne, 2008;Taylor and Robert L Jeanne, 2018) and termites (Poissonnier, Arganda, et al, 2018;Poissonnier, Simpson, et al, 2020). Finally, considering the growing interest in the function and properties of trophallaxis networks, we hope that data generated with our method could provide a fascinating new ground to explore.…”