Kin-biased foraging in a termite

Abstract

While kin-biased behaviour between nestmates has been well documented for social Hymenoptera, corresponding data for termites are missing. However, kin-biased behaviour in termite colonies may be of considerable evolutionary importance as many termite species are polygynous and polyandrous. Applying multilocus DNA fingerprinting we analysed the genetic structure of the termite Schedorhinotermes lamanianus. Genetic similarities estimated by bandsharing probabilities between workers in the nest centres were significantly lower compared with the similarities between individuals in foraging galleries (0.66 compared with 0.78). This suggests that for polygynous and polyandrous termite colonies, workers departing from the nest to their foraging areas assort according to their kin.