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Although subterranean termites live within soil, little attention has been paid on the potential interaction among subterranean termites and soil microbes. Herein, we conducted different choice tests to investigate aggregation and tunneling behaviors of  Coptotermes formosanus  Shiraki responding to soil/sand treated with conidia of seven soil fungi,  Trichoderma longibrachiatum  Rifai,  Trichoderma koningii  Oud.,  Trichoderma hamatum  (Bon.) Bain.,  Trichoderma atroviride  Karsten,  Trichoderma spirale  Indira and Kamala,  Trichoderma harzianum  Rifai, and  Trichoderma viride  Pers. ex Fries. In aggregation-choice test, soil treated with nearly all  Trichoderma  species tested (except  T. koningii ) significantly increased termite aggregation compared with untreated soil. In tunneling-choice tests, termites produced significantly larger tunnels in sand treated with  T. longibrachiatum  or  T. koningii  than that in untreated sand. We hypothesized that  Trichoderma  species could benefit termites by protecting them from infection of the entomopathogenic fungus  Metarhizium anisopliae  (Metschn) Sorokin, and three  Trichoderma  species that attracted termites ( T. longibrachiatum ,  T. atroviride , and  T. harzianum ) were tested. The antagonism tests showed that the three  Trichoderma  species suppressed growth of  M. anisopliae.  Also, the median lethal time (LT 50 ) of termites exposed to both  Trichoderma  species and  M. anisopliae  was significantly longer than termites exposed to  M. anisopliae  alone. Interestingly, though significantly fewer termites aggregated in soil treated with  M. anisopliae  conidia compared with untreated soil,  M. anisopliae  conidia mixed with  T. longibrachiatum  or  T. harzianum  were no longer repellent to termites. Our results showed that the fungi in the genus  Trichoderma  (1) exerted generally attractive effects on termites, (2) protected termites from the infection of entomopathogenic fungus, and (3) altered pathogen-avoiding behaviors of termites. Future studies will be required to understand the mechanisms underlying these newly discovered effects.

Trichoderma Species Attract Coptotermes formosanus and Antagonize Termite Pathogen Metarhizium anisopliae