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[Vol. 95 
Discussion 
Both workers and soldiers of H. aureus were able to distinguish 
individuals of their own colony from those of an alien colony and 
recognition always followed some type of body contact. Intercolony 
pairings of soldiers or soldiers and workers resulted in aggression 
with the death of one individual while in similar intracolony pair- 
ings there was no aggression or mortality. Recognition after body 
contact was especially evident when several intra- and intercolony 
switches were made sequentially. The contacts were probably the 
result of random movement and not a response to a pheromone, 
because the number of encounters/ minute decreased for both intra- 
and intercolonial pairings with an increase in arena size. Moreover, 
workers were not alarmed until there was contact of the antennae 
during simulated foraging. Body contact is also part of alarm com- 
munication of Zootermopsis angusticollis and Z. nevadensis (Stuart, 
1970). 
Repeated contacts in small arenas intensified aggression between 
individuals of H. aureus resulting in more encounters and fewer 
encounters to a fatal snap. The termites could have been stimulated 
by contact behavior or increased exposure to cuticular and/ or glan- 
dular substances. Cuticular hydrocarbons are associated with 
interspecific and caste recognition cues in the termite, Reticuli- 
termes virginicus (Howard et al., 1982a, 1982b). The role of cuticu- 
lar hydrocarbons in the conspecific intercolonial interactions of R. 
virginicus is unclear because pooled extracts of termites from widely 
separated locations (> 1.6 km apart) were used. These termites were 
almost certainly from separate colonies, and some agonistic behav- 
ior would be expected which could not be conclusively evaluated by 
a behavioral assay (Howard et al, 1982a). Nevertheless, cuticular 
hydrocarbons could be an important factor for communication dur- 
ing H. aureus encounters, since workers and soldiers became excited 
after body contact. Furthermore, there was recognition and alarm 
after contact of only the antennae during simulated foraging. Sold- 
iers also became excited and moved into the orifice between groups; 
some of the soldiers arched the abdomen and may have released an 
abdominal sternal gland substance which helped excite both soldiers 
and workers. Soldier sternal gland pheromone is important for 
recruiting soldiers and workers to areas of interspecific confronta- 
tion in Nasutitermes costalis (Traniello, 1981). Soldierless foraging 
