CUTICULAR HYDROCARBONS AND DEFENSIVE COMPOUNDS OF Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar) AND R. santonensis (Feytaud): POLYMORPHISM AND CHEMOTAXONOMY

Abstract--Colonies of Reticulitermesflavipes andR. santonensis were col-lected from the southeastern United States (Georgia) and the southwest of France (Charente-maritime). Defensive compounds and cuticular hydrocar-bons were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and quanti-fied by gas chromatography using an internal standard for each caste and all colonies. These analyses how that although the cuticular hydrocarbons ofR. santonensis in Europe and R. flavipes in Georgia are identical, their relative proportions are different. However, the defensive compounds synthesized by their soldiers are different. A strong chemical polymorphism between sym-patric colonies of R. flavipes in the SW United States was detected in terms of both the hydrocarbons of the workers and soldiers and in the defensive secretions of the soldiers. The six defensive secretion phenotypes are based on the presence or absence of terpenes whereas the cuticular hydrocarbon phenotypes are based on significant differences in the proportions of the var-ious components. A multivariate analysis (analysis of principal components) 2To whom correspondence should be addressed