Termitofauna (Blattodea: Termitidae) associada a espécies arbóreas em área de reserva da Ilha do Catalão da UFRJ, RJ

Abstract

The arboreal termites that are part of the Brazilian fauna attack urban areas that have expanded into areas of wild vegetation. The urban trees when not follow the proper principles of planting and management, transforms the trees into nesting sites and feeding termites. Thus, arboreal species of termites begin to assume increasing importance as pests. This study aimed to identify the species of termites associated with tree species and verify, under field conditions, if these termites exhibit preference for nesting and foraging, in the sandbank area of Catalan Island, in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, RJ. For this, 95 were chosen randomly planting rows of trees located in this area. These lines has traveled a path of 100 m, also randomly chosen, and during that route all the trees were inspected to verify the occurrence of termites. Termites found were collected, preserved in 70% alcohol for later identification. To assess the preferred nesting, all the trees were inspected for the presence nests of N. corniger. The occurrence of termites was registered in all tree rows sampled (n = 95). Of the total of 545 inspected trees, 77% were infested by termites, identified four species distributed into two families: three native species Termitidae (Nasutitermes corniger Motschulsky, Nasutitermes jaraguae Holmgren and Microcerotermes strunckii Soerensen) and an exotic species of Rhinotermitidae (Coptotermes gestroi Wasmann). The most frequent species was N. corniger (χ2 = 82.04, df = 3, p <0.001), occurring in 79% of infested trees, followed by N. jaraguae (6% of infested trees). The termite species least infested trees were found in C. gestroi (1%) and M. strunckii (1%). In general , the exotic tree species Albizia Lebeck is the most infested by termites and also exotic Leucaena leucocephala is less infested. 114 Nest establishment of N. corniger were identified, and the tree species Schinus terebinthifolius the most nidificada. So the trees of the Catalan's Island salt marsh area are infested with native and exotic termites, however, the native termite N. corniger is predominant.