To study the foraging galleries of subterranean termites in soil, early researchers painstakingly excavated underground tunneling system of these cryptic insects. Erhorn (1934) listed a report by Oahu Sugar Co., Ltd. in 1928 showing that runway of Coptotermes formosanus may extend up to 50 m long and 0.3 - 3 m deep. Ratcliffe & Greaves (1940) who excavated foraging galleries of Coptotermes lacteus indicated that the tunneling system may cover ca. 1.5 acres and extend ca. 50 m from the mound. Similar excavation study by Greaves (1962) showed that tunneling system of Coptotermes acinaciformis may extend 50 m from the mound and covered ca. 0.4 acres. King & Spink (1969) conducted similar excavation in N. America for C. formosanus and reported that the 5 - 117 cm deep galleries may extend over 140 m and cover ca. 1.4 acres. These studies enabled us to visualize the underground gallery system of subterranean termites, but the destructive sampling methods also rendered the field colonies useless for further studies. Two indirect sampling techniques were developed simultaneously for studies of foraging behavior of subterranean termites in the early 1970s. La Fage et al. (1973) used toilet paper rolls placed on soil surface to study the spatial distribution of surface foraging behavior of Heterotermes aureus and Gnathamitermes perplexus. Tamashiro et al. (1973) developed an on-the-ground monitoring station for C. formosanus. The station and trapping system provided unprecedented access to the underground populations of subterranean termites. This system was adopted for termite population studies with the mark-recapture method (Lai 1977) and for studying movement of foragers (Su et al. 1984). It also was used as a port of entry for applying control agents such as microbes (Lai 1977) or slow-acting toxicants (Su et al. 1991). Monitoring stations derived from the method of Tamashiro et al. (1973) have been used to study populations of subterranean termites under different environments (Su and Scheffrahn 1986, Grace 1989), and were essential in the development of baits for population control of subterranean termites. Due to the availability of termite bait products for pest control industry in recent years, there have been renewed interests in studies of foraging behavior of subterranean termites. We used artificial foraging arenas to study the spatial configuration of termite tunneling system in the laboratory. Our results showed that C. formosanus generally built wider and shorter tunnels than Reticulitermes flavipes, and the presence of wood in the arena did not significantly affected affect termite tunneling.

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