Feeding behavior of termites and crawl space environment

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Environmental factors, such as temperature, humidity and wind blow, probably affect the feeding behavior of termites. In this research, effects of relative humidity (RH) on feeding activity and runway-constructing activity of Coptotermes formosanus were studied in relation to the moisture content of wood. The results obtained are as follows :(1) When workers were directly exposed to atmosphere, RH of around 70% was enough to express ordinal feeding activity, whereas 60% RH was detrimental.(2) Workers could feed on wood with moisture content of 10-15% if they had water supply.(3) Existence of soil promoted the feeding activity of workers in the lower RH conditions.(4) For runway construction the higher RH was indispensable.(5) Acoustic Emission (AE) monitoring also showed that RH of around 70% was best for feeding on workers from the inside wood.(6) Laboratory colonies were more sensitive against humidity changes than field colonies.This study firstly clarified the optimum humidity condition in feeding activity of workers of C.formosanus. Together with the results of on-going studies relating to the other environmental factors, it will be possible to control the crawl space environment unfavorable to termites.