Body size of fungus-growing termites infers on the volume and density of their fungal cultivar

• Published in: Royal Society open science Vol. 10; no. 6; p. 230126
• Main Authors: Chiu, Chun-I, Ou, Jie-Hao, Kuan, Kuan-Chih, Chen, Chi-Yu, Huang, Yin-Tse, Sripontan, Yuwatida, Li, Hou-Feng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England The Royal Society 07.06.2023
• Subjects: insect-fungus symbioses; niche partitioning; Organismal and Evolutionary Biology; partner choice; size-number trade-offs; niche partitioning; partner choice; insect-fungus symbioses; size-number trade-offs
• ISSN: 2054-5703; 2054-5703
• DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230126

The body size of an animal plays a crucial role in determining its trophic level and position within the food web, as well as its interactions with other species. In the symbiosis between and fungus-growing termites, termites rely on nutrition of fungal nodules produced by . To understand whether the size of termites and fungal nodules are related to their partner specificity, we quantified the size of termite farmer caste, and the size and density of nodules in termite nests of four genera of fungus-growing termites, and identified their cultivated fungus species based on internal transcribed spacer regions and partial large subunit ribosomal RNA gene sequences. The results showed that the size and density of fungal nodules were different among clades and revealed a constant trade-off between size and density among clades. The nodule size of each clade has low variation and fits normal distribution, indicating that size is a stabilized trait. Moreover, we found larger termite genera cultivated with larger but less numerous nodules. Based on these results, we concluded that there is a size specificity between and fungus-growing termites, which may lead to diversification of as adaptations to different termite genera.