The termites of the Mayombe Forest Reserve, Congo (Brazzaville): transect sampling reveals an extremely high diversity of ground-nesting soil feeders

Sampling using a replicated standard transect method in an extensive undisturbed primary hill rain forest in Congo (Brazzaville) revealed a very high species richness of termites, especially soil-feeding soldierless termites (Apicotermitinae). The assemblage, as estimated by the transects, resembled that previously characterized in comparable forest in southern Cameroon, but with some species turnover reflecting the gamma diversity of the Guinean-Congolese block as a whole. Species richness was three or four times that shown by a previous study addressed to mound populations alone, emphasizing the importance of sampling soil-feeding termites neither building nor living in mounds.