Suitability of Substrate for Laboratory Studies with the Subterranean Termite Reticulitermes grassei (Clément) (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)

Abstract

Two substrates, sand and vermiculite, were tested in rearing laboratory experiments with Reticulitermes grassei at different culture periods (2, 4 and 6 weeks). Although information is available regarding procedures to keep species of Reticulitermes in lab, none of them is referred to the Mediterranean termite R. grassei. The suitability of substrate was assessed in terms of survival of termites. No statistically significant differences were obtained in the survival rate in the experiments with sand and vermiculite when short-time duration tests are performed, concluding that it seems to be indifferent using any of these substrates for shorter test than 8 weeks. SociobiologyAn international journal on social insects P Gallardo, AM Cárdenas, R Murillo

Diversity of Cellulolytic Microorganisms Associated with the Subterranean Termite Reticulitermes grassei

“…Note that this characteristic suggests that those fungal isolates associated with R. grassei could be well adapted to survive and develop in warm regions such as southern Spain. The climate of this geographic area is typically Mediterranean, with winter rainfall between 500 and 800 mm per year, average annual temperature around 17 °C, and relatively warm summers with average temperature around 24 °C [ 22 ].…”

“…The sampled termites were found near a broad diversity of forest trees including Eucalyptus , Pinus, and Populus spp. Two types of samples were collected: (i) Degraded wood: wood from trees showing typical symptoms of degradation caused by R. grassei was collected, placed in plastic bags, and kept at 4 °C until processing in the laboratory; and (ii) Termites: baiting stations with corrugated cardboard [ 22 ] were placed in each of the three sampled fields described above to capture subterranean termites. The cardboard was previously sterilized at 100 °C for 24 h to avoid non-termite-related microorganisms of degradation caused by R. grassei.…”

“…They were previously sterilized by means of kiln-drying at 60 °C for 48 h. This procedure is commonly used to study wood preferences in termites [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ] because this temperature preserves the wood’s properties [ 28 ]. To maintain humidity, sterilized vermiculite (100 °C in oven for 24 h) was added into the plastic containers and then moistened with sterile distilled water in 1:3 proportion ( w / v ) following the methods of Gallardo et al [ 29 ], and five replicates were conducted.…”

Suitability of multiple Mediterranean oak species as a food resource forReticulitermes grasseiClément (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)

“…In total, 180 rearing containers measuring 18 × 15 × 7 cm 3 were used. Following the methods of Gallardo et al (2016) and EN 118 (2013), each container was provided with 60 g of sand, moistened in a Feeding pattern of Reticulitermes grassei to oak species proportion of one volume of distilled water to four volumes of sand.…”

Identification of a worker arrestant aggregation pheromone in the Formosan subterranean termite Coptotermes formosanus

“…When foraging workers discover a new food source, they recruit their nestmates and then congregate for extended periods to exploit and colonize this source. While past research has hinted at chemical signals linked with temporal worker aggregation, such as phagostimulant agents (Reinhard and Kaib, 2001), corpse recognition cues (Reinhard et al, 2003;Sun et al, 2017), and trail pheromones (Bordereau and Pasteels, 2011), compounds causing prolonged aggregation remained unidenti ed. However, a recent study identi ed such an aggregation pheromone in the Japanese subterranean termite Reticulitermes speratus (Mitaka et al, 2020).…”