Behavioral and genetic analysis of colony fusion in Reticulitermes flavipes (Isoptera : Rhinotermitidae)
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Previous behavioral and genetic studies of Reticulitermes spp. suggest that colonies can occasionally merge together. To determine if colonies of R. flavipes may merge and whether reproductives from the two original colonies may interbreed with each other, we performed a laboratory experiment in which large fragments of colonies were paired together and provided with a common foraging arena. Observations were made on the nature of the interaction between workers and on whether colonies fused. We found a lack of aggressive behavior in 55% of the 20 colony pairing assays we performed. Colony pairings that demonstrated a lack of aggression spatially fused. In spatially fused colonies unrelated nestmates shared food resources, participated in trophallaxis, and tended unrelated brood. Microsatellite analysis of the immatures and eggs within fused colonies found that all progeny derived from only one of the two colonies that merged, indicating that reproductives from the two original colonies did not interbreed. Our results show that under laboratory conditions, colony fragments of R. flavipes may fuse in some cases. Our results also demonstrate that fused colonies can produce new functional replacement reproductives. This is the first time that two separate colonies that have fused have been reported to lay eggs and produce new larvae. The molecular data support the idea, however, that after two colonies merge, all progeny arise from reproductives originating from only one of the original colonies.
