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Interference competition in desert subterranean termites
Authors:S. C. Jones and M. W. Trosset
Affiliation:(1) Southern Forest Experiment Station, P.O. Box 2008 GMF, 39505 Gulfport, MS, USA;(2) P.O. Box 40993, 85717 Tucson, AZ, USA
Abstract:We examined interspecific aggression between two subterranean termite species, Heterotermes aureus (Snyder) (Rhinotermitidae) and Gnathamitermes perplexus (Banks) (Termitidae). In laboratory tests with worker termites, neither species was the inherently superior fighter, but rather the outcome of interspecific encounters depended on the number of conspecifics. We then investigated patterns of resource use by these species during a 13-month period in the Sonoran Desert. Baits consisted of toilet-paper rolls, which have been shown to be a mutually acceptable food source. Analyses of foraging activity demonstrated that the two species did not forage independently of each other. Not only were the two species negatively associated spatially, but extended periods of temporal segregation were observed. G. perplexus took significantly longer to return to sites that it had simultaneously occupied with H. aureus than to sites that G. perplexus had occupied alone. The pattern of co-occurrence of these two species is consistent with the hypothesis that interspecific interference competition affects their spatial and temporal distribution.
Keywords:Foraging behavior  Gnathamitermes perplexus  Heterotermes aureaus  interspecific aggression  Isoptera
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