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Cues Used by Subterranean Termites During Foraging and Food Assessment

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Termites and Sustainable Management

Part of the book series: Sustainability in Plant and Crop Protection ((SUPP))

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.

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  1. Department of Biology, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO, USA

    Timothy M. Judd

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  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia

    Md. Aslam Khan

  2. Department of Zoology, Section of Nematology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Wasim Ahmad

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Judd, T.M. (2018). Cues Used by Subterranean Termites During Foraging and Food Assessment. In: Khan, M., Ahmad, W. (eds) Termites and Sustainable Management. Sustainability in Plant and Crop Protection. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72110-1_8

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