BEHAVIOR OF THE NORTH AMERICAN TERMITE 
TEN UIR OS TRI TERMES TEN UIROS TRIS, 1 
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE 
SOLDIER FRONTAL GLAND SECRETION, 
ITS CHEMICAL COMPOSITION, 
AND USE IN DEFENSE 2 
By W. L. Nutting, 3 M. S. Blum 4 and H. M. Fales 5 
Introduction 
T enuirostritermes is a small genus of Neotropical termites with 
two species ranging northward into warm temperate, semi-arid areas 
of southwestern Texas \cinereus (Buckley)] or beyond into south- 
eastern Arizona [ tenuirostris (Desneux)]. As a member of the 
Nasutitermitinae, it is somewhat more primitive than the very large 
and well-known tropicopolitan genus, N asutitermes. The subfamily, 
containing the most highly specialized members of the Termitidae, 
is the largest in the order Isoptera. The major specialization within 
the subfamily has involved gradual reduction of the soldier mandibles 
to non-functional stubs with concomitant development of a small 
projection on the front of the head into a long, attenuated snout or 
nasus. The frontal gland, occupying most of the bulbous posterior 
of the head capsule, elaborates a defensive secretion which can be 
forcibly ejected through the frontal pore at the tip of the nasus by 
contraction of powerful mandibular muscles. This fontanellar gun 
represents the apex of sophistication among the varied chemical de- 
fense mechanisms of the termites. The zoogeography and affinities of 
the nasutitermitine genera have been discussed by Emerson (1955) 
and Krishna (1970) and their defensive behavior by Ernst (1959), 
Moore (1969) and Wilson (1971). Light and Weesner (1955) 
Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae. 
journal Paper No. 2269 of the Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station. 
The work on which this report is based was carried out as a part of the 
U.S./I. B.P. Desert Biome, and was supported (in part) by National Science 
Foundation Grant No. GB-15886. 
department of Entomology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721. 
department of Entomology, University of Georgia, Athens 30601. 
5 Laboratory of Chemistry, National Heart and Lung Institute, Bethesda, 
Md. 20014. 
Manuscript received by the editor February 22, 1974. 
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