Энтомология, орнитология и герпетология: текущие исследования
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Colony Genetic Organization and Breeding Pattern of Subterranean Termite (Reticulitermes flavipes) over the Three Field Seasons in Nebraska, U.S.A

Abdul Hafiz Ab Majid, Shripat T Kamble and Hong Chen

In this study, we repeated sampling from individual eight colonies from Wilderness Park, Lincoln, Nebraska separated by at least 200 meters over a three years period and during seasonal change (fall-winter) from 2009 to 2011. Ten workers from each site were genotyped at seven microsatellite loci. The results show that 62.5% of simple family colonies converted into mixed family after a year. The overall breeding pattern of the eight colonies changed from simple to mixed family colonies throughout the three years and back to simple family colonies type during the transition from fall to winter in 2010. F-statistics and relatedness analysis showed that the colony founded by unrelated pair of reproductives have high relatedness value (r>0.85) within colony. Our data indicated that termite colonies could form through the colonies fusion over time under natural conditions and probably could be influenced by seasonal temperature change.