ECOLOGICAL STUDIES ON TILE SYMBIOSIS OF TER ITOMYCES ...

GENMAL INTRODUCTION
Termites are Insects In the order Isoptera, They occur In
tropicals sub-tropical,, semi-arid and to some extent warm temperate
regions as far as 450 north and southe This results In approximately
two-thirds of the land surface coming within the limits of their
distribution (wood 1976, Wood and Sands 1978)* Mmy are important
and often dominant members of the soil faunaq feeding on plant
tinsuo which may be living$ dead or decaying, and playing a
significant role In the cycling of nutrients by affecting all
stages of decomposition* They are social Insects, with different
morphological forms or castesq living in highly organized
communities with each caste performing different functions. They
differ from hymenopteran social insects in that they are homi-
metabolous 9 the castes are usually bisexual and there are no known
subsocial groups (Krishna 1969)o They usually live in nests of
their own constructiong the nest system often being very extensive.
Their burrowing and nest buildingg together with their feeding
habitaq renults In them having a large effect on soil physical and
chemical properties as well as vegetation, agriculture and wooden
structures of man.
There are approximately 11900 living and fossil species
(Krishna 1969)s of which approximately 1400 are living (CM-Aton
1961), The fossils are closely related to the living species,
little change having occurred over millions of yearn (Wood and
Sands 1978). In tho 5 families of lower termites and the family,
TermLtidae, the higher termitesq there are 168 Genera, The
TermLtidao Includes approximately 75% of knawn species (Lee and
20.