Se estimó la composición de termitas asociada a plantaciones de Pinus caribaea de diferentes edades, establecidas en terrenos previamente ocupados por sabana seminatural y pastos artificiales, en la meseta de San Pedro en la Orinoquía colombiana (Villanueva, Casanare). Utilizando el protocolo del transecto, se muestrearon cuatro edades de plantación y áreas con pastos artificiales y sabana seminatural en dos épocas climáticas: húmeda 2013 y 2014 (marzo - abril) y seca de 2013 (noviembre - diciembre). La termitofauna encontrada estuvo compuesta de 28 especies pertenecientes a las familias Termitidae (Apicotermitinae, Nasutitermitinae, Termitinae, Syntermitinae) y Rhinotermitidae. Las plantaciones de siete años con poda y sin entresaca fueron las más diversas y la sabana seminatural alcanzó un mayor número de especies con respecto a los pastos introducidos, sin variaciones importantes en época de muestreo. La especie humívora Anoplotermes sp. 1 y la xilófaga Heterotermes tenuis fueron las más frecuentes en todas las edades de plantación, mientras en los otros usos del suelo el grupo más frecuente fue el humívoro con predominancia de Anoplotermes spp. Gracias al mejoramiento del microclima y al aumento de la disponibilidad de recursos alimenticios en plantaciones de pino de edades avanzadas, la diversidad y abundancia de termitas en este monocultivo es significativamente mayor que en pastos o sabanas, lo que sugiere que las termitas están interactuando con la dinámica natural de las plantaciones al contribuir en la descomposición del material celulósico y el mejoramiento de la fertilidad de los suelos.
Dolichorhinotermes Snyder & Emerson, 1949, a genus of Neotropical distribution, includes seven living termite species characterized by the presence of distinct major and minor soldiers. In Colombia, to date, only Dolichorhinotermes longilabius (Emerson, 1924) has been recorded in the Colombian Amazon Basin. A new distribution record of Dolichorhinotermes lanciarius Engel & Krishna, 2007 (Rhinotermitidae, Rhinotermitidae) is reported from an Andean region of the Department of Caldas, Colombia, where it was found at an altitude of 2100 m.
Ophelimus near migdanorum, a foliage gall wasp-inducer of Eucalyptus, is recorded for the first time in Colombia, infesting both mature ornamental trees of Eucalyptus globulus (Labill.) and monoculture plantations in the periurban forest in the city of Bogotá. The parasitoid Closterocerus chamaeleon was also emerged from the galled foliage. The spread of this pest and its parasitoid in other Eucalyptus species planted in Colombia has not been evaluated.
Background
The functional traits of insects and, in particular, those associated with termites have not been widely studied. Some studies present purely taxonomic approaches and overestimate interspecific variation and ignore intraspecific variation. Likewise, it is unknown how the functional morphological traits of termites are modified as a result of disturbances, in this case, the change in land use. Therefore, in order to contribute to the understanding of the response mechanisms of termites against land use change and its implications in intraspecific variation, we carried out morphological medition of 38 functional morphological traits (FMT) of the worker and soldier caste of xylophagous species Heterotermes tenuis (Hagen, 1858) in four periods of Pinus caribaea plantation (Morelet, 1851) and gallery forest relicts. Comparisons between relict forest and plantations were made using non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis, PERMANOVA and multinomial models.
Results
The intraspecific variation of 16 traits of the 38 studies presented lower values both in plantations and in gallery forests. Traits related to general body size are not considered useful due to their observed variation. Likewise, a more significant effect of the type of land use was observed than the plantation ages in the greater size of the workers, while the results were not conclusive in the military caste.
Conclusions
The results suggested a homogenization of the TMF of the worker caste of H. tenuis in the pine plantations, most likely, but not only related to an increase in the softwood food supply of P. caribaea.
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