Studies on the development of captive termite colonies

Abstract

AbstractDifferent authors have tried in the past to develop captive colonies of termites in their laboratories, starting with capturing of alate pairs and confining them in Petri dishes or small boxes to facilitate mating, then transferring incipient colonies into progressively larger containers. Twenty-three termite species of the genera Coptotermes, Cortaritermes, Cryptotermes, Hodotermes, Macrotermes, Mastotermes, Microtermes, Odontotermes, Pseudacanthotermes, Reticulitermes, Trinervitermes, and Zootermopsis have been explored following this method in 33 reported studies. However, in most of the attempts, incipient colonies did not grow beyond the population of a few hundred insects and tended to die off in a few months. In this paper, we report the efforts made to develop colonies of Hypotermes obscuriceps, Macrotermes convulsionarius, Microcerotermes cameroni, Odontotermes brunneus, Pericapritermes sp., and Trinervitermes biformis found in the study area. Several strategies were attempted to develop ...