Polyethism in odontotermes formosanus shiraki

Abstract

In this paper polyethism in Odontotermes formosanus Shiraki has been studied inside and out of nest at foraging site. The foragers head width taken and column chart of foragers made based on the head widths. Fungal gardens and main nest with queen and king have been sectioned into different parts, top, middle, and bottoms. Workers in the nest were divided into minor and major workers based on their head widths. Workers with smaller head widths normally worked in the nest and foraging workers and soldiers always had the bigger head widths. Furthermore, tunneling behavior of the minor and major workers have been checked when they were together and when they were working solely. Subject to tunneling, the minor workers were the voracious digger. They are both good at making tunnels and galleries however with smaller width in compare to major workers. Moreover, sternal glands size of workers and foragers have been checked to see the relationship between the polyethism and the size of sternal gland. After checking the sternal glands of foragers and nest keeper workers, it was proven that the foragers have bigger sternal glands.