Food preference of Macrotermes Gilvus and Globitermes Sulphureus termites from oil palm plantation in Kelantan

Different of bioassay design test (no choice, two choice and multiple choice) under laboratory condition impacted feeding behavior of termite. A series of experiment was conducted to determine the main food preference of Macrotermes gilvus and Globitermes sulphureus towards different parts of oil palm wood and to compare the food preference between Macrotermes gilvus and Globitermes sulphureus towards different parts of oil palm wood. The method that has been used for this experiment was pre survey of the oil palm plantation, preparation of ex situ termite habitat, termite sampling, oil palm wood of different part and rubber wood preparation and choice feeding test. Based on the observations, the mean number of termites of the both species with their preferred wood types, the most preferred wood was the fresh fronds oil palm wood with (4.333 ± 2.0817) for Macrotermes gilvus, while Globitermes sulphureus with (5.667 ± 2.0817). The least mean of preferred wood was the old fronds oil palm wood with (0.000 ± 0.000) for both termite species. For the wood consumption rate, Macrotermes gilvus consumed the most of fresh fronds with 0.0008 mg/no. of termite/day while Globitermes sulphureus also consumed most the fresh fronds with 0.004 mg/no. of termite/day. Also, the mortality rate was declined in the first day until last day of Food preference test. Thus, the result was the wood of fresh fronds oil palm was the main and most preferred food by the Macrotermes gilvus and Globitermes sulphureus during this experiment of feeding choice test and there was no comparison of the main food preference between Macrotermes gilvus and Globitermes sulphureus towards different parts of oil palm wood.