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Wood anatomical selectivity of drywood termite in the nest-gallery establishment revealed by X-ray tomography

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Abstract

Termite nest architecture has important biological attributes, as the whole structure represents a morphological expression of the sum of behavioral patterns which relate to a better understanding of their feeding ecology. The nest-gallery system of the western drywood termite, Incisitermes minor, inside naturally infested wood was visualized by X-ray computed tomography. Drywood termites are considered one-piece nesters; therefore, studying the anatomical properties of wood could increase the insight into those factors that influence the mechanisms used when the nest-gallery system is established. The interactions between the I. minor colony and environment, represented by the wood’s anatomical properties of fibers and growth rings, generate a distinctive and unique foraging pattern, which lead to selective excavation of the nest-gallery system. The results indicated that drywood termites exhibited continual adaptation to their environment as well as self-organization, similar traits of foraging and nesting biology can also be found in intermediate and separate nesters, however, at a different ecological scale.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are indebted to and thank Dr. Vernard R. Lewis from the University of California, Berkeley, for reading and commenting on the article, and Mr. Akio Adachi for preparing the wood samples used in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere (RISH), Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto, 611-0011, Japan

    S. Khoirul Himmi, Tsuyoshi Yoshimura & Takuro Mori

  2. Research Center for Biomaterials, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jl. Raya Bogor km. 46 Cibinong, Bogor, 16911, Indonesia

    S. Khoirul Himmi

  3. Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Yoshiyuki Yanase

  4. Nara National Museum, 50 Noborioji-cho, Nara, 630-8213, Japan

    Toshiyuki Torigoe

  5. Kyushu National Museum, 4-7-2 Ishizaka, Dazaifu, Fukuoka, 818-0118, Japan

    Setsuo Imazu

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  1. S. Khoirul Himmi
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  2. Tsuyoshi Yoshimura
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  3. Yoshiyuki Yanase
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  4. Takuro Mori
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  5. Toshiyuki Torigoe
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  6. Setsuo Imazu
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Correspondence to S. Khoirul Himmi.

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Himmi, S.K., Yoshimura, T., Yanase, Y. et al. Wood anatomical selectivity of drywood termite in the nest-gallery establishment revealed by X-ray tomography. Wood Sci Technol 50, 631–643 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-016-0800-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-016-0800-x

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