Wood Anatomical Selectivity of Drywood Termite in the Nest-Gallery Establishment Revealed by X-ray Tomography

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 nestgallery 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. Journal of Wood Science and Technology, Vol. 50, No. 3. Hal. 631-643