Comportement et activité de récolte de Macrotermes falciger (Isoptera, Termitidae) dans une forêt claire zambézienne du Shaba (Zaïre) | Behaviour and foraging activity of Macrotermes falciger (Isoptera, Termitidae) in a Zambezian woodland of Shaba (Zaire)
1989
Aloni, K. | Mbenza, M. | Malaisse, François
The authors were able to point out, for Macrotermes falciger, the main fungus-growing Macrotermitinae of the Zambezian woodland of the wet miombo type, building large epigeal nests, that : 1) the foraging activity takes place from mid December to mid February (main rainy season), as well as in early cold dry season ; 2) 1000 to 1500 workers per m2 are involved in this foraging activity ; 3) the foraging area for a whole nest covers a tenth to a quarter of hectare ; 4) termites are led outwards by underground passages through pits, whose number varies from 5 to 23 per m2, with about 15,000 foraging holes for one foraging activity or some 126,000 pits if extrapolated to one hectare ; 5) surface foraging is made easier by covered aboveground runways, the amount of soil removed for these shelters being about 69 g dry weight per m2 and 85 kg for one foraging activity ; 6) the fragments of thin woody twig and thatch found in these covered runways were measured ; the range was 1.4-12.9 mm long with mean of 6.0 mm {a — 1.9) ; 7) he has nowadays forsaked most of the mounds that he has set up, only 9.3% of them still possessing an active apical bud ; 8) nevertheless exist, in some mounds, (founder or substitution) colonies, which activity remains hidden during several years ; accordingly that 15% of the mounds are still inhabited by him in the Zambezian woodland.
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