Cues Used by Subterranean Termites During Foraging and Food Assessment

Abstract

Subterranean termites tunnel through soil to locate new food sources, an energetically expensive process. The use of efficient search patterns and food location cues reduce the cost of foraging. Once arriving at a potential food source, termites assess its quality using a different set of cues. These types of cues could affect recruitment and colony health and survival. This chapter reviews what is known about the foraging process of subterranean wood-feeding termites, a group that contains a number of economically important pests. It summarizes what is known about search patterns used by these termites and the role of food location cues to effectively reach a viable food source. This chapter also discusses what is known about wood preference and how different components of wood such as density, secondary metabolites, nutrients, and other factors affect food selection in subterranean wood-feeding termites.