Occurrence, body mass and biomass of Syntermes spp. (Isoptera: Termitidae) in Reserva Ducke, Central Amazonia

Abstract

The leaf-feeding species Syntermes molestus and S. spinosus are two dominant termite species in Reserva Ducke in Central Amazonia; two other species (S. aculeosus, S. longiceps) exist in the area. All species except S. aculeosus were also found in urban areas. The workers of S. molestus and S. spinosus have average body dry weights of 4.5±0.2 and 13.1±1.4 mg, and the weight of their soldiers is 8.2±0.2 and 51.0±1.7 mg, respectively. Therefore, S. spinosus is among the largest termites of the world. In both species, fresh weight is about 4.7 higher than dry weight (a wider relation than in other termite species). The biomass of the populations of both species amounted to about 1 g m-2 (dry weight; indirect estimate), which rises previous assessments of the total termite biomass by about 36-45%, to a value of 3.0-3.5 g m-2.

Biomass and abundance of termites in three remnant areas of Atlantic Forest in northeastern Brazil

“…The precise determination of the biomass of an animal population allows a more realistically evaluate of their relative importance in the ecosystem than any other single quantitative indicator (Martius 1998). Although quantification of biomass and abundance are two of the most important parameters used to evaluate the functional role of a species or an assemblage of termites in a given ecosystem, quantitative studies of the termite fauna have been relatively scarce in humid tropical forests (see Matsumoto 1976;Abe & Matsumoto 1979;Bandeira 1979;Wood et al 1982;Collins 1984;Bandeira & Torres 1985;Martius 1994a;Eggleton et al 1996;Bandeira & Vasconcellos 2002).…”

Biomass and population structure of Constrictotermes cyphergaster (Silvestri) (Isoptera: termitidae) in the dry forest of caatinga, northeastern Brazil

“…In the more humid Neotropical forests, the abundance and biomass of termites (including species inhabiting the soil, wood, nests and litter) were estimated at 2,060-4,845 individuals/m 2 and 13-17 g (fresh weight)/m 2 , respectively (Martius 1994(Martius , 1998Bandeira & Vasconcellos 2002). In other systems termite populations are able to remove 20% to 50% of the annual production of litter, reaching almost 100% in some arid regions (Holt 1987, Whiford 1991.…”

The importance of leaf- and litter-feeding invertebrates as sources of animal protein for the Amazonian Amerindians

“…These are the largest termites in the Neotropical rainforests. They forage mostly at night on the soil surface, the workers protected by soldiers, and bring litter fragments to their subterranean nests (Costantino 1995;Martius 1998). We estimated (on the basis of data collected by Martius (1998) , which represents about 0.001% of the standing biomass.…”

“…These quantities are lower than the evaluations made near Manaus (Martius 1998;Martius & Weller 1998). d Based on estimations by di¡erent researchers (Pimentel 1988).…”