Morphological Structure of Termite Mounds and Vertical Distribution of Royal Lodges of Pseudacanthotermes spiniger (Sjostedt) (Isoptera: Macrotermitinae) in Sugarcane Plantations of the Niari Valley (Republic of Congo)

Termites are social insects belonging to the order Isoptera. Some species, including Pseudacanthotermes spiniger, build nests or habitats. Observation of several nests of this termite has shown that they consist of an epigeal part with the characteristic shape of a cone. The cone has the particularity of being rebuilt in a short period of time during the swarming process, even if it has recently been razed. It is only occupied by termites during this same swarming period. It is thus a swarming cone. The hypogeum part or endoecy or habitacle is permanently inhabited. In addition to the termites, it contains fungus-comb chambers and a royal lodge or royal chamber. Several of these lodges contain several reproducers, in this case physogasters queens, and are distributed vertically at varying depths. The results of the analysis of variance indicate significant differences (Pless than0.001) in the number of lodges according to the depth. The depth range with the highest average number of royal lodges is between 21 and 30 cm with 20.15 lodges but the deepest lodges belong to polygynous colonies. The combination of several breeders would allow for deeper and perhaps faster digging in order to protect the royal lodge from potential predators.