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American Zoologist 1972 12(3):589-594; doi:10.1093/icb/12.3.589
© 1972 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
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Behavioral Regulatory Mechanisms in the Social Homeostasis of Termites (Isoptera)

ALASTAIR M. STUART
Department of Zoology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts 00102

Recent progress in the elucidation of the behavioral mechanisms responsible for maintaining the steady state in a termite colony is discussed. It is pointed out that various homeostatic mechanisms have common behavioral mechanisms. The mechanisms involved in nest repair and construction, foraging, defense, and general mass movements within nests are explained. An experiment is described in which differential responses to a discrete simple stimulus (heat) are made by two different castes of Nasulitermes corniger and the homeostatic significance emphasized. The factors in volved in foraging behavior in Reticulitermes are described. An hypothesis for the significance of the behavioral phenomenon of head-banging in termites is put forward: it is considered to be connected with the maintenance of accelerated activity in a colony after "General Alarm".


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