19821 Thome — Termite-Termite Interactions 135 
Figure 1. Field set-up for intraspecific encounter experiment involving Costa 
Rican Nasutitermes corniger. 
tained. A coat of tanglefoot was placed at the base of each wire 
strand (near the point of attachment to nest support branches) to 
prevent termites from crawling up the wires. A 3.5 X 3.5 m 2 plot 
beneath the nest triangle was completely cleared of leaf litter, forest 
debris and herbaceous plants so that movement patterns of the 
termite trails could be monitored. At 7:30 p.m. that evening stick 
“ramps” (90cm in length, 1 cm in diameter) were installed to connect 
the nests to the ground. The tips of the sticks were shallowly inserted 
into both the nest carton and ground surface for support. Bases of 
the ramps also ended in vertices of an equilateral triangle on the 
ground, 20cm from tip to tip. 
RESULTS 
Hanging above the ground from a single strand of wire, each nest 
was an island in mid-air: no escape routes were open for the ter- 
mites. By dusk of the day of collection, soldiers and workers from 
all colonies were crawling over the peripheries of their nests. This 
activity gained participants and momentum: at 7:30 p.m. each nest 
was a seething mass of termites. The stick ramps were embedded to 
