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ABSTRACT. Termites from two restinga forests of Northeastern Brazil. The structure of termite communities was evaluated at two restinga forests (a characteristic type of vegetation occurring on nutrient-poor sandy soils along the Brazilian coastline), located in the municipalities of Mataraca and Cabedelo, State of Paraíba. A standardised sampling protocol was used in both sites. Twenty-five species were found, 19 of them at Mataraca and 15 at Cabedelo, with just 9 species in common to both sites. Species of Nasutitermitinae and wood-feeding groups were dominant at both study sites. The low species richness and frequency of humus-feeders species, and species of the subfamily Apicotermitinae as well, seem to be related to the restinga soil properties. The conspicuous nest (all arboreal) builders were Armitermes holmgreni Snyder, 1926, Microcerotermes exiguus (Hagen, 1858, M. strunckii (Sörensen, 1884), Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky, 1855), N. ephratae (Holmgren, 1910), and N. macrocephalus (Silvestri, 1903). The termite fauna of the studied restinga was composed by typical species of other Brazilian ecosystems, such as Atlantic forest and Cerrado, being in agreement with the general pattern of distribution set up by the plant communities and the fauna of vertebrates described elsewhere for other Brazilian restingas.

The foraging activity of Constrictotermes cyphergaster was investigated in the Caatinga of Northeast Brazil. Eight colonies were monitored for seven days, during both dry and wet seasons. Foraging activity occurred in exposed columns at night, generally between 22:00 and 05:00 h. During the wet season, foraging activity was significantly higher, with one bout every 1.6 AE 0.2 days, than the dry season, when foraging bouts were performed every 1.9 AE 0.3 days. Foraging activity throughout the study colonies presented high temporal synchronization. In both seasons, foraging was negatively correlated with air temperature and positively correlated with humidity. The foraging trails were often re-utilized and ranged from 1 to 18.5 meters in length. No difference between seasons in the area potentially utilized by the study colonies was observed. Approximately 51000 individuals participated in the foraging bout during the dry season, whereas some 87000 individuals participated in the foraging bout during the wet season. This corresponds to 43 and 74% of the estimated total nest population for the dry and wet seasons respectively. The average ratio soldiers:workers during foraging was 1 : 1.2 in the dry season and 1 : 2 in the wet season. The higher frequency and number of individuals foraging during the wet season in the present study are likely to be a strategy from C. cyphergaster to store energy reserves to be utilized during the dry season.

Neotropical Entomology 36(5): 693-698 (2007) Biomassa e Estrutura Populacional de Constrictotermes cyphergaster (Silvestri) . These data suggest that C. cyphergaster is an important consumer of vegetal matter and, therefore, an important species affecting the nutrient