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A Chemical In Filter Paper Interferes With Trail Following Behavior In The Termite Reticulitermes Hesperus (Banks), Kathryn Vest
A Chemical In Filter Paper Interferes With Trail Following Behavior In The Termite Reticulitermes Hesperus (Banks), Kathryn Vest
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Termites follow chemical trails. In previous experiments we dissolved and diluted chemicals in acetone to test if they elicited trail following. Each trail was a straight line across the arena drawn with 10 µl using a glass capillary (Microcaps). We noticed a minor but stable response to trails laid with pure acetone. The response could be caused by contaminated acetone or by a chemical in the filter paper (Watman #5) that lined our arena (petri dish, 10cm diameter). We could confirm that the termites respond to acetone alone. Soxkhlet extraction for 8 hours removed the signal from the filter paper. …