ArticleOecologia2019
Nest composition, stable isotope ratios and microbiota unravel the feeding behaviour of an inquiline termite.
Article in Oecologia, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diversity and functional analysis of gut microbiota reveal ecological adaptations in the inquilinism ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Termite gas emissions select for hydrogenotrophic microbial communities in termite mounds.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Termites Are Associated with External Species-Specific Bacterial Communities.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2021Article
- Arthropod-Microbiota Integration: Its Importance for Ecosystem Conservation.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Review
- Revisiting stigmergy in light of multi-functional, biogenic, termite structures as communication channel.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Termites are eusocial insects having evolved several feeding, nesting and reproductive strategies. Among them, inquiline termites live in a nest built by other termite species: some of them do not forage outside the nest, but feed on food stored by the host or on the nest material itself. In this study, we characterized some dimensions of the ecological niche of Cavitermes tuberosus (Termitidae: Termitinae), a broad-spectrum inquiline termite with a large neotropical distribution, to explain its ecological success. We used an integrative framework combining ecological measures (physico-chemical parameters, stable isotopic ratios of N and C) and Illumina MiSeq sequencing of 16S rRNA gene to identify bacterial communities and to analyse termites as well as the material from nests constructed by different termite hosts (the builders). Our results show that (1) nests inhabited by C. tuberosus display a different physico-chemical composition when compared to nests inhabited by its builder alone; (2) stable isotopic ratios suggest that C. tuberosus feeds on already processed, more humified, nest organic matter; and (3) the gut microbiomes cluster by termite species, with the one of C. tuberosus being much more diverse and highly similar to the one of its main host, Labiotermes labralis. These results support the hypothesis that C. tuberosus is a generalist nest feeder adapted to colonize nests built by various builders, and explain its ecological success.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.