【Objective】 Reticulitermes chinensis (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) is a soil/wood-nesting amphibious termite species. It is easy to produce replacement reproductives (RR), which is the main reason for its serious damage and difficult control. In order to provide references on mechanism of reproductive differentiation and the development of control technology of termites, we investigated the characteristics of RR differentiation and the influence factors, including the population composition, quantity, the developmental level and the food consumption of experimental groups during the differentiation process of RR. 【Method】 The colonies of R. chinensis were collected from the field and reared in the laboratory for several days to adapt to the experimental conditions. Then they were separated to different experimental groups with different compositions, populations and developmental levels. We observed the development of RR and the effects of the composition, the population, the developmental level and the food consumption on the durations of RR differentiation, mature RR differentiation and oviposition. 【Result】 The no wing bud replacement reproductives (NRR) of R. chinensis was differentiated through four development stages, namely workers, pre-replacement reproductives, NRR and mature NRR. The short wing bud replacement reproductives (SRR) of R. chinensis was differentiated through three development stages, i.e. short wing bud nymphs, SRR and mature SRR. In the population with nymphs, workers differentiated to RR earlier than nymphs did. When the number of individuals in the population was between 100 and 200, the population quantity, the number of soldiers, and with or without nymphs in the population did not significantly affect the RR differentiation duration, mature RR differentiation duration and oviposition duration (P>0.05). Besides, population maturity had a significant influence on the duration of mature RR differentiation (P<0.05), while the developmental level of experimental populations had no significant effect on the durations of RR differentiation and oviposition (P>0.05). As the population number was between 100 and 150, there were no significant differences on the durations of RR differentiation, mature RR differentiation and oviposition with or without soldiers(P>0.05). Meanwhile, when the population number was 200, soldiers in populations had a significant effect on the duration of RR differentiation (P<0.05), but not on the durations of oviposition and mature RR differentiation (P>0.05). The effect of food consumption on the duration of first RR differentiation was the most obviously among all RR differentiation durations. 【Conclusion】 Workers' ability to develop to RR was slightly stronger than short wing bud nymphs'. In RR differentiation process, the duration of RR differentiation was mainly affected by the population composition and the food consumption, the duration of mature RR differentiation was mainly influenced by the developmental level of test termites, while the population composition, the population number and the developmental level of experimental groups did not significantly affect the oviposition duration. Furthermore, the developmental level had significant or extremely significant effects on the duration of mature RR differentiation (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Therefore, more attention should be paid to the mature population dispersal in R. chinensis control. © 2019, Editorial Department of Scientia Silvae Sinicae. All right reserved.
