Cornitermes cumulans (Kollar, 1832) is a mound-building termite that stores food nodules in the nest, which seems to be pre-chewed and regurgitated by workers. Information on the food resources used by this species is still scarce, and this study aimed to understand the feeding habits of C. cumulans using a qualitative analysis of the worker gut contents, and to select the best food to keep termites under laboratorial conditions. Thus, four food resources and five artificial diets were tested to evaluate the laboratory survival of C. cumulans. Food nodules from nests were used as a positive control, and no food was available in cages for negative control. Ten replicates using 30 workers plus three soldiers were performed for each type of food and for each control. The experiments were daily examined for termite survival during a 40-day period. Data were analyzed using the log-rank (Mantel-cox) test (P < 0.05). The qualitative analysis of the gut contents showed different materials, such as plant parts, fungi, and minerals. Data analysis showed that all of the survival curves of termites fed with artificial diets and food items were significantly different from that obtained with termites fed on food nodules, which showed the highest survival, followed by the diets of α-cellulose, corn stalk, and sugarcane bagasse. Then, our findings showed that the most adequate artificial foods to maintain populations of C. cumulans in the laboratory were the diets of α-cellulose, corn stalk, and sugarcane bagasse.

Cornitermes cumulans（Kollar，1832）是一个筑巢的白蚁，在巢中储存食物结节，似乎是被工人预先咀嚼和反流的。关于该物种使用的食物资源的信息仍然匮乏，本研究旨在通过对工人肠道内容物的定性分析来了解C. cumulans的摄食习惯，并选择最佳的食物以将白蚁保持在实验室条件下。因此，对四种食物资源和五种人工饮食进行了测试，以评估积雪草的实验室存活率。。巢中的食物结节被用作阳性对照，笼子中没有食物可作为阴性对照。每种食物和每种控制使用30名工人和3名士兵进行了10次重复。每天检查实验在40天内的白蚁存活率。使用对数秩（Mantel-cox）检验分析数据（P <0.05）。对肠道内容物的定性分析显示出不同的材料，例如植物部位，真菌和矿物质。数据分析表明，以人工饮食和食物喂养的白蚁的所有存活曲线均与以食物结节喂养的白蚁的存活曲线显着不同，白蚁的存活率最高，其次是α-纤维素，玉米秸秆和玉米。甘蔗渣。然后，我们的研究结果表明，在实验室中最能维持丘脑线虫种群的人工食品是α-纤维素，玉米秸秆和甘蔗渣的饮食。