Termites assess wood size by using vibration signals

Evans, Theodore A.; Lai, J.C.S.; Toledano, Emilie; Mcdowall, Lee; Rakotonarivo, Sandrine T.; Lenz, Michael

doi:10.1073/pnas.0408649102

Cited by 110 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The tactile stimuli come from the edges of solid objects present along the trail and of the food, and help the termites establish the trail of the colony to the food source (Swoboda & Miller, 2004). In the case of drywood termites, some species produce acoustic stimuli by drumming their head against the substrate or shaking their body as a mechanism to attract foragers and to assess the size of the food source (Evans et al, 2005;2007). Hedlund and Henderson (1999) verified that for C. formosanus the larger the size of the food source, the greater the consumption.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Food Resource Size on the Foraging Behavior of Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky)

et al. 2018

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In general, termite foraging can be affected by physical and chemical factors linked to food. This study investigated if the wood length of Eucalyptus grandis W. Hill ex Maiden, as a food resource, influences the behavior of foraging events of Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky). Nests with mature and active colonies were collected in the field and transferred to glass cubes connected to a test arena under laboratory conditions. Wooden blocks of E. grandis, with a 2.5 x 2.0 cm rectangular cross section, were offered to termites in three different lengths: 5, 10 and 15 cm. Each test was repeated with 20 nests and lasted 60 minutes, when the following behavioral events and their duration were observed: initial exploration, initial recruitment and mass recruitment. At the end of each test, the quantities of termites (total, workers and soldiers) and gnawing workers were determined. The results show that longer blocks favored a higher occurrence of exploration and initial recruitment. However, the highest mass recruitment occurred with the 10 cm blocks. The length of the wood influenced the total number of termites recruited and gnawing workers; both were highest for the 10 cm blocks. There was no significant difference in relation to exploration time of the blocks and number of workers and soldiers recruited. Therefore, we conclude that wood length is a factor that can affect N. corniger foraging.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Food Resource Size on the Foraging Behavior of Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky)

et al. 2018

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“…Because solitary-insect hexamerins play a very welldocumented role in nutrient storage (Burmester and Scheller, 1999), one possibility is that food quality/quantity and nutritional status are important extrinsic and intrinsic factors that impact hexamerin titers (Nalepa, 1994). Colony conditions, such as caste composition (reviewed in Wilson, 1971), auditory stimuli (Evans et al, 2005) and primer pheromones (Wilson and Bossert, 1963;Lefevue and Bordereau, 1984;Vander Meer et al, 1998;Korb et al, 2003), may also have either direct or indirect impacts on hexamerin titers. With respect to environmental influences on JH, conditions such as season, temperature and moisture must also certainly play a role (Huang and Robinson, 1995;Liu et al, 2005a;Liu et al, 2005b;Suzuki and Nijhout, 2006).…”

Section: Termite Hexamerins and Impending Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hexamerin-based regulation of juvenile hormone-dependent gene expression underlies phenotypic plasticity in a social insect

2007

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Worker termites of the genus Reticulitermes are temporally-arrested juvenile forms that can terminally differentiate into adultsoldier-or reproductive-caste phenotypes. Soldier-caste differentiation is a developmental transition that is induced by high juvenile hormone (JH) titers. Recently, a status quo hexamerin mechanism was identified, which reduces JH efficacy and maximizes colony fitness via the maintenance of high worker-caste proportions. Our goal in these studies was to investigate more thoroughly the influences of the hexamerins on JH-dependent gene expression in termite workers. Our approach involved RNA interference (RNAi), bioassays and quantification of gene expression. We first investigated the expression of 17 morphogenesis-associated genes in response to RNAi-based hexamerin silencing. Hexamerin silencing resulted in significant downstream impacts on 15 out of the 17 genes, suggesting that these genes are members of a JH-responsive genomic network. Next, we compared gene-expression profiles in workers after RNAi-based hexamerin silencing to that of (i) untreated workers that were held away from the colony; and (ii) workers that were also held away from the colony, but with ectopic JH. Here, although there was no correlation between hexamerin silencing and colony-release effects, we observed a significant correlation between hexamerin silencing and JHtreatment effects. These findings provide further evidence supporting the hypothesis that the hexamerins modulate JH availability, thus limiting the impacts of JH on termite caste polyphenism. Results are discussed in a context relative to outstanding questions on termite developmental biology, particularly on regulatory gene networks that respond to JH-, colony-and environmental-cues.

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“…This alarm is transmitted inside the nest and the gallery system at a distance of several meters (Lehrer, 2013). In the literature, the vibration alarm signal is generally <2 kHz and acoustic emission with the ultrasonic signal is > 60 kHz (Evans et al, 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discriminant Analysis as a Tool for Detecting the Acoustic Signals of Termites Coptotermes Curvignathus (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)

Nanda¹,

Seminar²,

Nandika³

et al. 2018

IJTech

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Various methods for termite detection have been developed, one of which is purely based on their acoustic signals. However, this method has a weakness, as it is difficult to separate the signals generated by the termites from noise in the environment. A combination of the feature extraction of the acoustic signals and a classification model is expected to overcome this weakness. In this investigation, we inserted 220 subterranean termites Coptotermes curvignathus into pine wood for feeding activity and observed their acoustic signals. In addition, three acoustic features (shortterm energy, entropy and zero moment power) were proposed to recognize the termites' acoustic signals. Subsequently, these features were analyzed and combined with discriminant analysis to produce a robust classification model. According to the numerical results, the integrated discriminant analysis and the acoustic feature in our termite detection system has an accuracy of 83.75%.

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Termites assess wood size by using vibration signals

Cited by 110 publications

References 20 publications

Influence of Food Resource Size on the Foraging Behavior of Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky)

Influence of Food Resource Size on the Foraging Behavior of Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky)

Hexamerin-based regulation of juvenile hormone-dependent gene expression underlies phenotypic plasticity in a social insect

Discriminant Analysis as a Tool for Detecting the Acoustic Signals of Termites Coptotermes Curvignathus (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)

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