Abstract:
This study has been conducted with the objective to know and compare the diversity
and biomass of subterranean termites on peatland being used as oil palm plantation and homegarden in Bukit Batu area, Riau. Termite sampling was done in September 2011 at two villages. Four plots were selected to represent each land use type. In each plot one transect line of 100 m was drawn, on which ten subplots of 1 m x 1 m were situated
with a distance of 10 m from one to the next. Termites were collected from beneath the peat surface down to a depth of 10 cm within each plot. They were weighed alive as
fresh biomass. Six termite species belonging to four genera, three subfamilies and two
families were encountered. There were only three species (Parrhinotermes inaequalis,
Schedorhinotermes sarawakensis and Coptotermes curvignathus) found under oil palm, all of which also occurred under homegarden (Sorensen Similarity Index=66.67%). Capritermes latignathus, Parrhinotermes sp. and Coptotermes kalshoveni were three species encountered only under homegarden. Termite biomass was invariably small under both land uses, with an average of 0.9 ± 0.40 gr/m2 and 0.3 ± 0.32 gr/m2 under oil palm and homegarden, respectively. There were no significant difference in termite biomass between these land uses
