The territory size distribution of Formosan subterranean termites in an urban landscape was studied by using a two-dimensional lattice model with minimized local rules on the basis of empirical data to determine the development of a territory. An urban landscape including components such as complex man-made structures, trees, and lakes was constructed on a lattice space. Each component was described by assigning values ranging from 0.0 to 1.0. These values were interpreted as transition probabilities, Ptrans, which represented the spatially distributed properties of the components. The higher the Ptrans values, better were the environmental conditions for territory growth. We applied this model to the termite colonies in Louis Armstrong Park in New Orleans, LA. A comparison of the model prediction and the observed territory size distribution showed very similar trends in maximum territory on a size-normalized scale. The trends emerged from two effects: first, when a founding pair was surrounded by lattice cells with low Ptrans values, its growth was strongly inhibited, and second, when territories competed with each other at shared boundaries, their growth was restrained. In addition, we investigated the effect of the presence/absence of landscape components on the territory size distribution in the simulation.
The territory size distribution of Formosan subterranean termites in an urban landscape was studied by using a two-dimensional lattice model with minimized local rules on the basis of empirical data to determine the development of a territory. An urban landscape including components such as complex man-made structures, trees, and lakes was constructed on a lattice space. Each component was described by assigning values ranging from 0.0 to 1.0. These values were interpreted as transition probabilities, Ptrans, which represented the spatially distributed properties of the components. The higher the Ptrans values, better were the environmental conditions for territory growth. We applied this model to the termite colonies in Louis Armstrong Park in New Orleans, LA. A comparison of the model prediction and the observed territory size distribution showed very similar trends in maximum territory on a size-normalized scale. The trends emerged from two effects: first, when a founding pair was surrounded by lattice cells with low Ptrans values, its growth was strongly inhibited, and second, when territories competed with each other at shared boundaries, their growth was restrained. In addition, we investigated the effect of the presence/absence of landscape components on the territory size distribution in the simulation.