Cubitermes sp M9 - Morphospace

Description

This Cubitermes nest presents externally the « mushroom shaped » appearance typical of Cubitermes nests.

Inside, the nest is fully packed with oval chambers, all similar in size, interconnected by very short and narrow corridors. These narrow corridors might serve a defence purpose. In fact, some specialised termites in the colony -the soldiers- defend the colony from predators such as ants by blocking completely these corridors with their large and strong head.

This nest was collected from a Savannah region in Central Africa, near Banza, where Cubitermes nests were locally extremely abundant.

Technical data sheet

Geographic coordinates: 4.112730902465869, 17.89868892126393 (approximate coordinates)

Collector: Philippe Annoyer (Association Insectes du Monde)

Data curators: Christian Jost, Guy Theraulaz, Andrea Perna

Collection date: 3rd March 2005

Morphological descriptors: mushroom shaped, interconnected chambers, epigeous nest

Material descriptors: clay

Taxonomic descriptors: Cubitermes, Termitinae

Geographic descriptors: Central African Republic, Banza, Savannah

Alternative ID: Mesomorph project (ANR-06-BYOS-0008) MeMo0009

Acknowledgements: The nest was imaged at CHU Rangueil in Toulouse

Availability of the original specimen: Not known. If available, it could be at the Museum of Natural History of Toulouse.

Usage permissions: Freely available. If used in scientific publications, it would be appreciated if you could acknowledge the Mesomorph project ANR-06-BYOS-0008

Additional information: Centreafrique, quelques kms avant le village de Banza (en venant de Nola direction Bangui), 03.03.2005. Un site de savane arbustive avec de grandes tendues ‘peles’ où s’étendent des milliers de termitières du genre Cubitermes.

This nest was featured in the following scientific publications: Perna et al. “The structure of gallery networks in the nests of termite Cubitermes spp. revealed by X-ray tomography”. Naturwissenschaften (2008) http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-008-0388-6 Perna et al. “Topological efficiency in three-dimensional gallery networks of termite nests”. Physica A (2008) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2008.07.019 Perna et al. “The topological fortress of termites”. LNCS (2008) http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92191-2 Valverde et al. “Percolation in Insect Nest Networks: Evidence For Optimal Wiring”. Physical Review E (2009) http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.79.066106 Young-Ho E., Perna A., Fortunato S., Darrouzet E., Theraulaz G., Jost C. “Network-based model of the growth of termite nests”. Physical Review E http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.92.062810

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