Influence of the Trap's Depth and Meteorological Parameters on Population Fluctuations of Psammotermes hypostoma (Desneux) (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) Workers

Abstract

There is a gap in knowledge regarding the impact of trap depths on Psammotermes hypostoma ( Desneux) population variations. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of trap depths and some physical parameters on worker population fluctuations. From September 2019 to August 2020, 1300, El-Sebay-modified traps within Poly Vinyl Chloride (P.V.C.) tubes were used at several depths of 10 cm, to 150 cm in Qena City, Egypt. Furthermore, temperatures and relative humidity % were assessed using the Pearson correlation coefficient. The current findings illustrated the highest percentage (34.04%) at 10 cm depth, inversely, the lowest was (7.24%) at 100 cm depth. Interestingly, the 36 th week (April) at 50 cm depth had the highest mean number of individuals (234.60 ± 12.9). Although, at 10 cm depth, the lowest mean number of individuals was 0.20 ± 0.20 in the 19 th week. On the other hand, result analysis demonstrated that both maximum and minimum temperatures had a substantial positive effect on the worker activity at 10 cm depth where r = 0.333 and 0.318, respectively. However, there was a significant negative effect at 150 cm depth between the maximum, and minimum temperatures. Additionally, RH% had a significant positive effect at 150 cm depth and a negative significant effect at 10 and 50 cm depths, respectively. Thus, it's concluded that the abundance of individuals is inversely proportional to the soil depth furthermore temperature, and directly the relative humidity. So, in the future, this could be a viable result for managing subterranean termites.