Entomological Communicatons, 4, 2022: ec04030 doi: 10.37486/2675-1305.ec04030 e-ISSN: 2675-1305 Open Access Full Text Artcle © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil. This article is published by Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil and licensed under Creative Commons Licence 4.0, CC-BY. Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. Effect of food resource and carton nest material on laboratory group survival of Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky, 1855) (Termitidae: Nasutitermitinae) Larissa F. Ferreira, Cátla R. Silva , Renan E. C. Santos , Paulo F. Cristaldo  Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brasil. Corresponding author: paulo.cristaldo@ufrpe.br Edited by: Daniell R. R. Fernandes Received: July 25, 2022. Accepted: August 20, 2022. Published: September 13, 2022. Abstract. Ecological, behavioral, and toxicological studies with termites are frequently difcult to conduct under feld conditons because their cryptc lifestyle. It is important to know the factors that can limit survival to ensure that laboratory studies will refect the natural survival of these insects. Here, we tested the efect of a food resource and carton nest material on group survival of Nasuttermes corniger (Motschulsky, 1855) (Termitdae: Nasuttermitnae) in the laboratory. In general, termites survived longer in treatments with a food resource (sugarcane baits) compared to groups with carton nest material and control. However, groups with food resources exhibited high mortality due to fungal infecton. The result of this study may contribute to the establishment of bioassay protocols performed with N. corniger in the laboratory. Keywords: manipulatve bioassays, protocols, termite, survivorship. Termites (Blattodea: Isoptera) are considered one of the most important macrodetritivores of tropical forests due to their active participation in the decomposition and cycling of nutrients (Jouquet et al. 2011). These insects are also of great economic importance, due to damage caused by some species in agricultural and urban environments (Constantino 2002). Much of the ecological and economic importance of this group is due to their feeding habits. Termite species feed on cellulose in different stages of humification (from dry wood to soil) (Donovan et al. 2001). Despite the high ecological and economic importance of termites, ecological, behavioral and toxicological studies are frequently difficult to conduct in the field because their cryptic lifestyle. It is important to know factors that can limit survival to ensure that laboratory tests will reflect the natural survival of these insects. While previous studies have been extensively tested the effect of markers (e.g., Loreto et al. 2009; Marins et al. 2023) and abiotic factors (e.g., Ferreira et al. 2019; Zukowski & Su 2017) on the survival of termites to develop bioassays protocols; the effects of food resources and nest material on group survival of Nasutitermitinae are still poorly studied. Only one study has been conducted to investigate the better substrate to survival of Nasutitermes coxipoensis (Holmgren, 1910) (Termitidae: Nasutitermitinae) (Albuquerque et al. 2008). It is important to highlight that, different from other termite groups, species of Nasutitermitinae subfamily are not easy to maintain in laboratory conditions. Such difficult in the maintenance of Nasutitermitinae species in laboratory impair the conduction of studies. Colonies of the subfamily Nasutitermitinae, notably genus Nasutitermes, has the highest incidence of arboreal nesting. Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky, 1855) (Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae) is an urban and agricultural pest, which is widely distributed in the Neotropical region (Boulogne et al. 2017; Scheffrahn et al. 2005). The nests of this species are constructed from carton, masticated wood or feces, and other local materials cemented with salivary secretions (Noirot 1970; Thorne & Haverty 2000). The individuals of N. corniger feed on a wide variety of wood, and also with a capability to adapt to a variety of habitats and resources sources (Boulogne et al. 2017). According to Boulogne et al. (2017), N. corniger is the most important pest species of this genus in the New World. In the present study, we evaluated the effect of a food resource and carton nest material on the group survival of N. corniger under laboratory conditions. We test the hypothesis that the combination of a food resource and carton nest material in the experimental arenas increase the survival of termite groups. The study was carried out using five colonies collected at the Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE) - campus SEDE (8004'03'' S, 34055'00'' W), in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. The bioassays were conducted in Petri dishes (80 × 15 mm) with a filter paper. The following conditions were established: (1) termite groups (seven workers and three soldiers) alone (control), (2) termite groups with 3 g of carton nest material (NW), (3) termite groups with 5 g of freshly cut sugarcane baits (a surrogate of food resource) (SC); and (4) termite groups with 3 g of carton nest material and 5 g of freshly cut sugarcane baits (NW+SC). Nest material used in the bioassays was collected from the central part of the nest and it was kept whole without add water. All pieces of nests used were recently sampled. The choice of sugarcane as food resource was based considering previous studies with N. corniger that used sugarcane as bait in laboratory experiments (Sacramento et al. 2020; Silva et al. 2021). The caste proportion in the group was chosen to account for the natural proportion of soldiers in N. corniger colonies (i.e., 30%) (Haverty 1977). Bioassays were conducted in laboratory under controlled conditions (25 0C, 70% r.h.), kept in the absence of light. The number of dead individuals was determined at one-hour intervals for the first eight hours, and then daily until the death of all individuals. Three repetitions per treatment were performed for each of the five colonies tested, totaling 60 repetitions/bioassay. Data were subjected to censored survival analysis under Weibull distribution, using R software (R Development Core Team 2019). Statistical analysis was used to check whether treatments (control, NW, SC and NW+SC) would affect the group survival of N. corniger. Contrast analysis was conducted to check differences among treatments. To confirm whether the death of termites occurs by fungal pathogen, dead termites were placed in a humid chamber in a biochemical oxygen demand (B.O.D.) incubator (25 0C, 12h photoperiod). The fungus sporulation was assessed after five days to allow sufficient time for Protocol & Techniques