Differential time allocation of foraging workers in the subterranean termite

Sang-Bin Lee,Thomas Chouvenc,Nan-Yao Su

doi:10.1186/s12983-021-00446-5

Sang-Bin Lee, Thomas Chouvenc + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-021-00446-5

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Abstract

BackgroundForaging in group living animals such as social insects, is collectively performed by individuals. However, our understanding on foraging behavior of subterranean termites is extremely limited, as the process of foraging in the field is mostly concealed. Because of this limitation, foraging behaviors of subterranean termites were indirectly investigated in the laboratory through tunnel geometry analysis and observations on tunneling behaviors. In this study, we tracked subsets of foraging workers from juvenile colonies of Coptotermes formosanus (2-yr-old) to describe general foraging behavioral sequences and to find how foraging workers allocate time between the foraging site (food acquisition or processing) and non-foraging site (food transportation).ResultsOnce workers entered into the foraging site, they spent, on average, a significantly longer time at the foraging site than the non-foraging site. Our clustering analysis revealed two different types of foraging workers in the subterranean termite based on the duration of time they spent at the foraging site and their foraging frequency. After entering the foraging site, some workers (cluster 1) immediately initiated masticating wood fragments, which they transferred as food boluses to recipient workers at the foraging site. Conversely, the recipient workers (cluster 2) moved around after entering the foraging site and received food from donating workers.ConclusionsThis study provides evidence of task specialization within foraging cohorts in subterranean termites.

Highlights

Animals search for and consume food resources to survive and successfully reproduce, as food acquisition fundamentally supports their development and reproduction
Investigations of task allocation processes involved in foraging behavior have historically tracked subsets of foraging workers, as a proxy to infer the theoretical framework
Colony establishment Colonies of C. formosanus were established using alate pairs collected during dispersal flights (April–May 2017) following the method used by Chouvenc et al [33]

Summary

Introduction

Animals search for and consume food resources to survive and successfully reproduce, as food acquisition fundamentally supports their development and reproduction. Depending on the lifestyle of a species, foraging can be performed alone (i.e., solitary animals) or in groups, which often requires a collective coordination of actions to optimize foraging output [1]. In social insect colonies, foraging is a collective process in which individual workers venture away from the safety of the nest, search for and collect food resources, and return to the nest to provision their nestmates with food. The portion of active coordinating foragers is usually context and species-dependent, and it can be challenging to determine foraging behaviors at the colony level because of the large spatial scale in social insect colonies. Foraging in group living animals such as social insects, is collectively performed by individuals. How‐ ever, our understanding on foraging behavior of subterranean termites is extremely limited, as the process of foraging in the field is mostly concealed. We tracked subsets of foraging workers from juvenile colonies of Coptotermes formosanus (2-yr-old) to describe general foraging behavioral sequences and to find how foraging workers allocate time between the foraging site (food acquisition or processing) and non-foraging site (food transportation)

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