Differences in Nest Architecture Between the Neotropical Arboreal Termites Nasutitermes Corniger and Nasutitermes Ephratae (Isoptera: Termitidae)

Nests of the Neotropical termites Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky) and N. ephratae (Holmgren) have distinctive external and internal architectures. The differences are useful field characters because they are apparent in all but the smallest (<15 cm diameter) nests. N. corniger and N. ephratae are sympatric throughout much of their range. N. corniger has been reported from Mxico (Snyder 1949), Guatemala (Becker 1953), Honduras (Snyder 1949), Costa Rica (Holmgren 1910, Snyder 1925), Panam/t (Motschulsky 1855, Banks 1918), Venezuela (Snyder 1959), and Bolivia (Snyder 1926). N. ephratae reportedly ranges from Mxico (Becker 1961) to Brazil (Mathews 1977), with collections from Honduras (Snyder 1949), Costa Rica (Snyder 1925), Panami (Banks 1918), Venezuela (Snyder 1959), Trinidad (Snyder 1949), Guyana (Banks 1918, Emerson 1925), Surinam (Holmgren 1910, Emerson 1925), and Bolivia (Snyder 1926). Both N. corniger and N. ephratae build arboreal carton nests in lowland habitats. The general structure of arboreal Nasutitermes nests has been described by Emerson (1938) and Noirot (1970). The bumpy exterior carton of N. corniger nests was distinctive to early isopterists working in Panam/t (Dudley & Beaumont 1889a,b; Dietz & Snyder 1923; Snyder & Zetek 1924). N. ephratae nests were described briefly by Becker (1953) and by Mathews (1977). Dietz and Snyder (1923) apparently found N. ephratae colonies in