One of the major goals of ecology is to understand how co-habiting species partition limited resources. In the eastern U.S., at least three species of Reticulitermes subterranean termites often occur in sympatry; however, little is known about how these species divide food resources. In this study, we characterized the foraging activity of Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar), R. hageni Banks, and R. virginicus (Banks) across seasons to assess the impact of environmental conditions on resource partitioning. A field site consisting of two grids of wooden monitors was sampled monthly for 28 months. Foraging activity in all three species was correlated with the interaction of temperature and moisture. This correlation was influenced by temperature and moisture approximately equally in R. flavipes, whereas temperature contributed more to the correlation in R. hageni, and moisture contributed more in R. virginicus. These differences caused each species to preferentially forage during specific environmental conditions: R. flavipes continued foraging after high moisture events, R. hageni increased foraging under higher soil moisture, and R. virginicus increased foraging under lower soil temperatures. We attempted to explain these patterns by the species’ physiological limits; however, we found no differences in upper lethal limit, desiccation, or submersion limits across species. These results add to the overall understanding of resource partitioning by emphasizing the ability of multiple species to utilize the same resource under different environmental conditions and raise questions regarding the physiological and/or behavioral mechanisms involved.

中文翻译：

---

德克萨斯州东部森林地下白蚁（散白蚁种）的季节活动、空间分布和生理限制


生态学的主要目标之一是了解共生物种如何分配有限的资源。在美国东部，至少有三种散白蚁属地下白蚁经常同时出现。然而，人们对这些物种如何分配食物资源知之甚少。在本研究中，我们描述了黄散白蚁(Kollar)、 R. hageni Banks 和R. virginicus (Banks) 跨季节的觅食活动，以评估环境条件对资源分配的影响。在 28 个月的时间内，每月对由两格木制显示器组成的现场进行采样。所有三个物种的觅食活动都与温度和湿度的相互作用相关。在R. flavipes中，这种相关性受温度和湿度的影响大致相同，而在R. hageni中，温度对相关性的贡献更大，而在R. virginicus中，湿度的贡献更大。这些差异导致每个物种优先在特定的环境条件下觅食： R. flavipes在高湿度事件后继续觅食， R. hageni在较高土壤湿度下增加觅食，而R. virginicus在较低土壤温度下增加觅食。我们试图通过物种的生理限制来解释这些模式；然而，我们发现不同物种的致死上限、干燥或淹没极限没有差异。 这些结果强调了多个物种在不同环境条件下利用相同资源的能力，并提出了有关所涉及的生理和/或行为机制的问题，从而增加了对资源分配的整体理解。