Large
termite workers (third instar or later) were used in this study;
workers lacked wing-buds and large mandibles. Sixty termites
were placed in small, Petri dishes (Nunc, 33 mm) sanded with 200
grit sandpaper. Theywere fed with a ~1 cmdisk of diet consisting of
pine wood sawdust and shredded brown paper towel (50/50 w/w).
Initially, the diet was treated with 200 mL of one of 5 solutions based
on treatment group: water (untreated group), 5% ampicillin (w/v),
5% kanamycin (w/v), 5% metronidazole (w/v), or 2.5% tetracycline
(w/v).