Survey of the Termites (Isoptera: Kalotermitidae, Rhinotermitidae, Termitidae) of Lanyu Island, Taiwan

Abstract

Lanyu Island (= Botel Tobago Island; Orchid Island) is a 48-km2 volcanic island, -90 km south east of Taiwan Island. Oshima (1912) and Tu (1955) conducted a termite survey on Lanyu Is land, and recorded 6 species (3 families, 6 genera) in total, but the voucher specimens were neither mentioned nor available. During 10-12 Jun 2007, we collected 24 termite colony samples from 11 lo calities along roadsides, in structures, and on boats on the island (Fig. 1). Our survey also yielded 6 species in 6 genera and 3 families (Table 1). Identifications were made by Li based on orig inal descriptions and references listed in Table 1. The voucher specimens are deposited in the Uni versity of Florida Termite Collection, Fort Lau derdale Research and Education Center, and Na tional Taiwan University, Department of Ento mology, Taipei, Taiwan. The 6 species with brief description are the following. Cryptotermes domesticus (Haviland): Alates were taken from a sport-fishing yacht, and 4 other colonies were found in the dead branches of living trees. This distribution pattern indicates that Cr. domesticus is a structural pest and also a wood land species of Lanyu Island. In Taiwan Cr. do mesticus was only found in structural wood (Li, unpublished data). Miller & Paton (1983) re ported that Cr. domesticus is indigenous and only found in mangroves in northern Australia near Darwin, but is a domestic pest in northern Queens land. We assume that Lanyu Island and North Australia are the northern and southern limits of