The study showed how trails were established with and without any food source. The two stimulants for strong trail-laying by the termites were found to be: (1) a virgin (trail-less) surface, and (2) a discovered food source. Whenever a food source was discovered, the returning workers (from the food source to the nest) increased strong trail-laying (STL) activity more than the outgoing termites.
The results also confirmed that there was no trail specificity (neither in artificial trail extracts nor in natural trails) between different colonies of Amitermes evuncifer. This means that in trail bioassays, test termites can be taken from any colony (of the same species). A method devised for extracting, preserving as well as carrying out tests with extracted natural trail was discussed.
Trail activity was measured in terms of “trail unit” (TU). The trail activity of a single worker sternal gland was found to be 15,000 TU. This is the highest activity ever found in a worker of any termite species. This study has confirmed chemical communication in Amitermes evuncifer.
