Analysis Of Exocrine Glands Compounds And Study Of Agonistic Behaviors Of Coptotermes Formosanus Shiraki (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) Among Colonies

The Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki, is an economically very important oriental species of Rhinotermitidae, Isoptera. The species of termite showed agonistic behavior among colonies, which may help to develop a new technology for the control of pest termites. However, the cues for kin discrimination were not clearly clarified until now.This paper tried to seek the cues for the intercolony recognition and agonistic behaviors of C. formosanus, and main study was focused on the analysis of compounds of several exocrine glands.1 Agonistic behaviors among colonies of C. formosanusLaboratory observations of the agonistic behaviors of intercolonial workers, soldiers, and group termites were done with 6 colonies of C. formosanus from Hubei (one colony), Anhui (one colony), Zhejiang (two colonies), and Hunan provinces (two colonies). The results suggested that there was no obvious correlation between the geographical distance between colonies and the intercolonial agonistic behavior. It was found that the agonistic behavior of individual soldier was as same as that of mass termites. We thought the individual soldier can be used to replace the mass termites for the behavior bioassay of C. formosanus. However, the experimental duration would influence the final result of agnonitic behavior experiment sometimes.2 Analysis of compounds of exocrine glands in C. formosanusThe compounds of several exocrine glands, which were considered to be related with intercolonial agonistic behavior, of three representative colonies of C. formosanus were analyzed with GC/MS. Totally thirteen groups of compounds were detected from the mandibular gland, salivary galnd and sternal gland of workers and the frontal gland of soldiers from three colonies. The number of compounds from each gland was from 147 to 203. One hundred and twenty four species of compounds were different between the aggressive colony and the gentle colonies. Of which, 90 compounds were hydrocarbons, and no difference existed on the compounds of quinines .