Tuesday, 19 November 2002 - 1:36 PM
0807

This presentation is part of : Ten-Minute Papers, Subsection Fb. Urban Entomology

The making of SimTerm©, a simulation program for termite tunneling - from scrub-jay and manatee to subterranean termite

Bradley M. Stith, BMS Consulting, 1510 N.W. 68th Terr, Gainesville, FL and Nan-Yao Su, FLREC University of Florida, Department of Entomology, 3205 College Ave, Fort Lauderdale, FL.

SimTerm is a MS Windows program that simulates the tunneling behavior of subterranean Termites. SimTerm is one of several models developed recently that allows us to compare and contrast movement for: 1) a flying organism -- the Florida Scrub-Jay, 2) a swimming organism -- the Florida Manatee, and 3) a burrowing organism -- the subterranean termite. Movement across space is costly for most organisms, and therefore we expect movement behavior to result in efficient pathways. Although the scale of movement is very different for the 3 species, lengthy pathways for all 3 species tend to be relatively straight, with small turn angles, and correlated directionality.

Species 1: Isoptera Rhinotermitidae Coptotermes formosanus (Formosan subterranean termite)
Species 2: Isoptera Rhinotermitidae Reticulitermes flavipes (eastern subterranean termite)
Keywords: foraging behavior, modeling

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