Cuticular Hydrocarbons as Chemotaxonomic Characters for Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky) and N. ephratae (Holmgren) (Isoptera: Termitidae)1

Abstract
Forty-four cuticular hydrocarbon components from workers of the termites Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky) and N. ephratae (Holmgren) from three localities in Panama were characterized by capillary gas chromatography-electron impact mass spectrometry. Both species contain qualitatively identical homologous series of n-alkanes; 2-, 3-, 11-, 13-, 14-, and 15-methylalkanes; 11,15-, 12,16-, and 13,17-dimethylalkanes; and 11,15,19- and 13,17,21-trimethylalkanes. Both species also contain a single alkene, 9-hentriacontene. The two species, however, are readily distinguished chemically by differences among the relative abundances of 11 of their major hydrocarbon components.

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