Community interactions between ants and arboreal-nesting termites in New Guinea coconut plantations

We investigated the incidence of inquiline ants and of arboreal-nesting ant s on a community of three arboreal-nesting termites living in New Guinea co conut plantations. Inquiline ants were present in 10% of Microcerotermes bi roi nests and in 4% of Nasutitermes princeps nests. Live termite nests inha bited by the most common inquiline ant, Camponotus sp. A, were generally le ft by the ant after several months. In some nests, Camponotus sp. A was obs erved coexisting with its host during the whole observation period (3 years ). Therefore, Camponotus sp. A was apparently an opportunistic inquiline wh ich did not affect significantly the mortality of termite colonies. The arb oreal-nesting ant, Crematogaster irritabilis, was locally found occupying u p to 99% of the trees present in 1 ha plots. In such hot spots, the overall abundance of termites was approximately half that of plots devoid of Crema togaster irritabilis. The high density of Crematogaster irritabilis may be an important limiting factor for the termite assemblage, by hastening the d eath or hindering the establishment of arboreal termite colonies.