关键词: 黑胸散白蚁, 成熟年龄, 分飞, 生殖蚁, 抑制作用

Abstract: The developmental length for mating flight and the inhibition from reproductive caste on individual differentiation of colony in Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder were investigated. The results showed that 16.70% of reared colonies presented flight at the seventh year and 83.70% at ninth year under a pair of first form reproductives. The duration of the development for flight was 8.67 years on average. But 53.85% of those colonies under replacement reproductive types did flight at the sixth year and 46.15% at the seventh. Actually those colonies under replacement reproductives presented flight 2.29 years earlier than those under first form ones on average. When the flight took place, the members in colonies under first form reproductives were much more than those under the replacement reproductives for the former had longer development duration. It was also found that the number of replacement reproductives in colonies had no obvious relationship with the developmental length for flight. Based on these observations, it was inferred that the first form reproductives could inhibit the differentiation of the replacement reproductives and nymphs much more strongly than the replacement reproductives could do.  Even though the developing speed of colonies in Reticulitermes chinensis took an important role in the differentiation of castes, the obvious influence would come into being after the pheromone excreting in reproductives weakened

Key words: Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder, developmental length, mating flight, reproductive, inhabition