Reproductive Behaviors and Pairing Modes of Odontotermes fomosanus (Shiraki) Alates

The objective of this paper is to study the reproductive behaviors and the effect of different pairing modes on the developmental status of incipient colonies' of Odontotermes fomosanus (Shiraki). The authors observed the reproductive behaviors of male alates, female alates and mated alates respectively. Two peaking hours of mating activity within the daily circadian rhythm of alate activity appeared from 09:00 to 10:00, and from 21:00 to 22:00, respectively. Courtship behavior before mating consisted of touching with anlennae connecting into a ring (head-to-end) and licking. The reproductive behavior (calling, pairing, tandem, mating and oviposition) of nestmate pairs was different to that of non-nestmate pairs. The pairing time of non-nestmate pairs was significantly longer than that of alates paired with siblings. The non-swarming alates could mare with swarming or non-swarming alates and lay fertile eggs which hatched successfully. However, the survival rate of colonies founded by non-swarming alates was very low.