Survival of termites (Isoptera) exposed to various levels of relative humidity (RH) and water availability, and their RH preferences Author Zukowski, John University of Florida, Entomology and Nematology Department, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314, USA, E-mail: jzukows 2 @ ufl. edu (J. Z.), nysu @ ufl. edu (N. - Y. S) * Corresponding author; E-mail: jzukows 2 @ ufl. edu (J. Z.) jzukows2@ufl.edu Author Su, Nan-Yao University of Florida, Entomology and Nematology Department, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314, USA, E-mail: jzukows 2 @ ufl. edu (J. Z.), nysu @ ufl. edu (N. - Y. S) * Corresponding author; E-mail: jzukows 2 @ ufl. edu (J. Z.) jzukows2@ufl.edu text Florida Entomologist 2017 2017-09-30 100 3 532 538 http://dx.doi.org/10.1653/024.100.0307 journal article 10.1653/024.100.0307 1938-5102 13307315
Table 2. Relative humidity (RH) (mean ± standard error of the mean [SEM]) preference of 4 termite species (Coptotermes formosanus, Neotermes jouteli, Cryptotermes brevis, and Cryptotermes cavifrons) expressed as the percentage of individuals found at each RH level.
RH abc
a Means followed by the same lowercase letters within a row or means followed by the same capital letter within a column are not significantly different at the α = 0.05 level (Tukey honest significant difference test). b Value for the combination (species × RH) of treatments are means of 6 observations of 50 termites per arena (25 termites for N. jouteli). c Mean RH produced by water, 3 salts, and indicating Drierite are found in parentheses. d Values for each main treatment effect (species, RH) are means of 30 and 24 observations, respectively.
SpeciesH2O (90.7 ± 0.24%)NaCl (71.7 ± 0.20%)Mg(NO3)2 (52.0 ± 0.12%)MgCl2 (34.1 ± 0.16%)Drierite (8.4 ± 0.48%)
C. formosanus89.3 ± 2.5Aa4.00 ± 1.5Ab3.30 ± 1.4Ab2.00 ± 0.9Ab1.3 ± 0.8Ab
N. jouteli91.3 ± 2.8Aa4.70 ± 1.2Ab3.30 ± 2.6Ab0.70 ± 0.7Ab0.0 ± 0.0Ab
Cr. cavifrons18.3 ± 16.4Ba42.3 ± 19.0Aa1.00 ± 1.0Aa21.0 ± 13.2Aa17.3 ± 8.8Aa
Cr. brevis3.00 ± 2.3Ba7.00 ± 4.3Aa30.7 ± 19.5Aa17.7 ± 10.9Aa42.3 ± 15.9Aa
Mean preference at RH d50.5 ± 9.3a14.5 ± 5.7b9.6 ± 5.3b10.3 ± 4.4b15.3 ± 5.5b