The largest protozoa in the hindgut of workers of Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki, was selectively eliminated by forced-feeding on low-molecular weight cellulose (LC) with a mean DP of 17. Although one week's feeding on LC caused perfect disappearance of Pseudotrichonympha grassii Koidzumi, the selective defaunation method itself had no detrimental effect on the health conditions of termite on the basis of survival rates and weight changes of workers in the latter feeding. In addition, the fact that the defaunated workers repidly recovered their wood-attacking activity by being mixed with normally faunated workers could well support this assumption. By the results of changes of protozoan fauna when selectively defaunated workers were forced to feed on various cellulose substrates, it was suggested that each protozoan species had its inherent role in cellulose metabolism.

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