Abstract

A marker recapture study was conducted in a coconut garden at Sukkampatti village of Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, India to estimate the foraging populations of Coptotermes heimi (Wasmann), one of the most destructive, polyphagous termite species in India. Foraging activity of this termite was monitored by estimation of number of worker termites and cow dung consumption in the monitoring stations. The results revealed that foraging population of C. heimi in coconut garden at Sukkampatti varied from of 14,659.90 + 26.09 to 15,045.66 + 29.34 with a foraging area of 59.33m2 to 65.23m2. The foraging population and bait matrix consumption decreased significantly after baiting with chlorpyriphos 20 EC at 7.5 ppm

Keywords: Coptotermes heimi, cow dung bait, triple marker capture