Coordination of construction behavior in the termite Procornitermes araujoi: structure is a stronger stimulus than volatile marking

Fouquet, Daniel; Costa–Leonardo, Ana Maria; Fournier, Richard; Blanco, Stéphane; Jost, Christian

doi:10.1007/s00040-014-0350-x

Cited by 23 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Deposition at the edge of excavation sites is reminiscent of behaviour in other termite species in tunnel excavation, where most workers deposit material as soon as space allows rather than carry it away from the tunnel mouth [26,27]. While other recent studies have reported the formation of quarries during building by social insects [16,28], they did not investigate the role of these quarries in organizing construction. These observations suggest that, in the first minutes of construction activity, excavation and deposition are closely linked as coupled behaviours rather than being two independent actions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two recent developments suggest the need for and ability to conduct new investigations into the mechanisms that termites use to coordinate mound construction. First, a number of recent studies have not found evidence for the primacy of a chemical pheromone-often suggesting alternative mechanisms-and thereby question the interpretations of Grassé and Bruinsma's original empirical investigations [15][16][17][18]. Second, advances in video recording and computer vision technologies have enabled the tracking of individuals within groups over the duration of experiments [19], yielding novel insights regarding behaviours and social structures within a wide variety of animal species [20,21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Excavation and aggregation as organizing factors in de novo construction by mound-building termites

et al. 2017

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Termites construct complex mounds that are orders of magnitude larger than any individual and fulfil a variety of functional roles. Yet the processes through which these mounds are built, and by which the insects organize their efforts, remain poorly understood. The traditional understanding focuses on stigmergy, a form of indirect communication in which actions that change the environment provide cues that influence future work. Termite construction has long been thought to be organized via a putative 'cement pheromone': a chemical added to deposited soil that stimulates further deposition in the same area, thus creating a positive feedback loop whereby coherent structures are built up. To investigate the detailed mechanisms and behaviours through which termites self-organize the early stages of mound construction, we tracked the motion and behaviour of major workers from two species in experimental arenas. Rather than a construction process focused on accumulation of depositions, as models based on cement pheromone would suggest, our results indicated that the primary organizing mechanisms were based on excavation. Digging activity was focused on a small number of excavation sites, which in turn provided templates for soil deposition. This behaviour was mediated by a mechanism of aggregation, with termites being more likely to join in the work at an excavation site as the number of termites presently working at that site increased. Statistical analyses showed that this aggregation mechanism was a response to active digging, distinct from and unrelated to putative chemical cues that stimulate deposition. Agent-based simulations quantitatively supported the interpretation that the early stage of de novo construction is primarily organized by excavation and aggregation activity rather than by stigmergic deposition.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Excavation and aggregation as organizing factors in de novo construction by mound-building termites

et al. 2017

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“…At a similarly large scale, carbon dioxide gradients may be used as templates in nest construction (21). There is, however, only scarce evidence that building pheromones are relevant outside of their influence on the construction of smaller-scale structures including pillars and walls (22).…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Morphogenesis of termite mounds

Ocko

Heyde

Mahadevan

2019

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Several species of millimetric-sized termites across Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America collectively construct large, meter-sized, porous mound structures that serve to regulate mound temperature, humidity, and gas concentrations. These mounds display varied yet distinctive morphologies that range widely in size and shape. To explain this morphological diversity, we introduce a mathematical model that couples environmental physics to insect behavior: The advection and diffusion of heat and pheromones through a porous medium are modified by the mound geometry and, in turn, modify that geometry through a minimal characterization of termite behavior. Our model captures the range of naturally observed mound shapes in terms of a minimal set of dimensionless parameters and makes testable hypotheses for the response of mound morphology to external temperature oscillations and internal odors. Our approach also suggests mechanisms by which evolutionary changes in odor production rate and construction behavior coupled to simple physical laws can alter the characteristic mound morphology of termites.

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“…Building behavior of Macrotermes natalensis, in contrast, appears to be more confined by a greater reliance on cement pheromone to organize building". Fouquet et al (2014) explored termite worker selection between sites of 'marked and textured' sources of material, concluding that the existing structure or texture was a strong cue, over 'volatile marking', even though they acknowledged that better control of evaporative effects was lacking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moisture gradients form a vapor cycle within the viscous boundary layer as an organizing principle to worker termites

et al. 2018

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Studies of termite mound building have considered the mud they prepare, its properties and its composition. Here we consider the behaviors of the mound building termites Macrotermes michaelseni, (Sjostedt), in the presence of the viscous boundary layer (VBL), which spontaneously forms over any surface that air passes over. We looked how soil moisture and air vapor are coupled to form a feedback loop and a spatiotemporal precursor to worker termites in the presence of mound material. We explored residency and activities of workers when presented with a VBL and either varying substrate temperature gradients or a soil moisture transition within the soil substrate. We report the emergence of a 'vapor conveyor', which forms around a neutral evaporative equilibrium point (NEEP) at the soil/air interface, where the soil-borne moisture temperature (along the gradient) and the 100% saturated airborne vapor temperature coincide within the VBL, forming a bubble of neutral mass transfer which, we propose, worker termites are sensitive to as viscosity changes within. We found, on average, that 67% (std. dev 27%) of behavioral events (clustering, excavation, and deposition) occurred within 1 °C either side of the NEEP. We found negative correlation (− 0.78) between the substrate temperature gradient (0.1-0.9 °C mm −1) and the extents of behavioral activity, suggesting coupling between soil-borne moisture and airborne vapor advection within the VBL. We recorded unique behaviors relating to interaction with the viscosity of vapor-saturated air at this scale. We speculate that workers may exploit the VBL to overcome a classic trade-off, i.e., how to push activities forward into potentially desiccating environments while conserving moisture in both the termites and the soil they build with.

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Coordination of construction behavior in the termite Procornitermes araujoi: structure is a stronger stimulus than volatile marking

Cited by 23 publications

References 48 publications

Excavation and aggregation as organizing factors in de novo construction by mound-building termites

Excavation and aggregation as organizing factors in de novo construction by mound-building termites

Morphogenesis of termite mounds

Moisture gradients form a vapor cycle within the viscous boundary layer as an organizing principle to worker termites

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