Enemy deterrence in the recruitment strategy of a termite: Soldier-organized foraging in Nasutitermes costalis
- 1 March 1981
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Vol. 78 (3), 1976-1979
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.78.3.1976
Abstract
The nasute soldiers of the neotropical termite N. costalis function as scouts by exploring new terrain for food in advance of the worker caste and regulate foraging activity by laying trails composed of sternal gland pheromone. Additional soldiers are at 1st recruited in large numbers, and subsequently workers appear as the pheromone concentration increases. The role of the nasutes in the organization of foraging is extremely unusual for the soldier caste in social insects and appears to be a component of a foraging/defense system that controls the recruitment of foragers and effectively deters attacks by ants, the most fierce and important predators of termites.This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- Nitrogen sources for neotropical nasute termites: Fixation and selective foragingOecologia, 1980
- THE INFLUENCE OF FOOD ON TRAIL-LAYING AND RECRUITMENT BEHAVIOUR IN TRINERVITERMES BETTONIANUS (TERMITIDAE: NASUTITERMITINAE)Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, 1979
- Defensive behavior of a termite (Nasutitermes exitiosus)Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 1976
- Alarm, Defense, and Construction Behavior Relationships in Termites (Isoptera)Science, 1967