Open AccessANTS (HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE) IN MOUNDS OF AMITERMES LAURENSIS (ISOPTERA: TERMITIDAE)
Author(s) -
Holt J. A.,
Greenslade P. J. M.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
australian journal of entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1440-6055
pISSN - 1326-6756
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-6055.1979.tb00866.x
Subject(s) - termitidae , biology , hymenoptera , nest (protein structural motif) , ecology , competition (biology) , abundance (ecology) , habitat , biochemistry
Ants associated with mounds of the termite Amitermes laurensis were studied in the Townsville district, Queensland, during the wet season. More than 30 ant species are now known from mounds of A. laurensis with up to seven species in a single mound. The great majority of these ants are inquilines, simply using termite mounds as nest sites. At least in the wet season there is little to suggest that they play any significant part in the dynamics of established populations of this termite species. Instead, the most important factors to the termite seem to be intra‐specific competition and spatial variability of the habitat which affect mound density and colony growth and survival. Ants compete for mound space not taken up by A. laurensis and the species present and their abundance vary with mound size, the vigour of the termite colony and the presence or absence of competing ant species.