DIFFERENCES IN NEST ARCHITECTURE BETWEEN 
THE NEOTROPICAL ARBOREAL TERMITES 
NASUTITERMES CORNIGER AND 
NASUTITERMES EPHRATAE 
(ISOPTERA: TERMITIDAE) 
By Barbara L. Thorne 
Museum of Comparative Zoology 
Harvard University 
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 
Introduction 
Nests of the Neotropical termites Nasutitermes corniger (Mot- 
schulsky) and N. ephratae (Holmgren) have distinctive external and 
internal architectures. The differences are useful field characters 
because they are apparent in all but the smallest (<15 cm diameter) 
nests. 
N. corniger and N. ephratae are sympatric throughout much of 
their range. N. corniger has been reported from Mexico (Snyder 
1949), Guatemala (Becker 1953), Honduras (Snyder 1949), Costa 
Rica (Holmgren 1910, Snyder 1925), Panama (Motschulsky 1855, 
Banks 1918), Venezuela (Snyder 1959), and Bolivia (Snyder 1926). 
N. ephratae reportedly ranges from Mexico (Becker 1961) to Brazil 
(Mathews 1977), with collections from Honduras (Snyder 1949), 
Costa Rica (Snyder 1925), Panama (Banks 1918), Venezuela 
(Snyder 1959), Trinidad (Snyder 1949), Guyana (Banks 1918, 
Emerson 1925), Surinam (Holmgren 1910, Emerson 1925), and 
Bolivia (Snyder 1926). 
Both N. corniger and N. ephratae build arboreal carton nests in 
lowland habitats. 1 The general structure of arboreal Nasutitermes 
nests has been described by Emerson (1938) and Noirot (1970). The 
bumpy exterior carton of N. corniger nests was distinctive to early 
isopterists working in Panama (Dudley & Beaumont 1889a,b; Dietz 
& Snyder 1923; Snyder & Zetek 1924). N. ephratae nests were 
described briefly by Becker (1953) and by Mathews (1977). 
Dietz and Snyder (1923) apparently found N. ephratae colonies in 
1 N. ephratae is also capable of building mounds (pers. obs. from a savannah near 
Barinas, Venezuela). 
Manuscript received by the editor February 18, 1981. 
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