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Summary Energy and material flows from dead organic matter, or detritus, to generalist predators have a potential impact on the food web dynamics. However, little is known about how commonly generalist predators depend on detritivorous prey, or the detritus on which the detritivores have fed in terrestrial food webs. To examine this, we measured the diet ages of terrestrial invertebrate and vertebrate consumers (>30 species) at multiple trophic levels in a tropical rain forest, with a particular focus on ants and termites by using radiocarbon (14C). Here, we defined diet age as the lag time between the primary production and the utilization by consumer organisms. The diet ages varied from 0 to >50 years and corresponded to known feeding habits of the consumers. Herbivores such as bees, butterflies, a frugivorous bird and bat, and nectar-feeding ants had young diet ages (0–3 years). Meanwhile, detritivores such as termites had old diet ages, which increased according to the food resources in the order of litter (6 years), soil (10 years) and wood (≥19 years). The diet ages of predators such as wolf spiders, hunting wasps, army ants, tree shrews and an insectivorous bat were intermediate (2–8 years), indicating the dependence of many predators on detritivores. Because known dietary components of the predators include herbivores and detritivores, the intermediate ages likely indicate the coupling of energy and material flows between plant-based and detritus-based food webs. Diet ages of soil-feeding termite and army ant differed significantly, although a previous study reported that their nitrogen isotope ratios were indistinguishable despite the differing feeding habits. This indicates that radiocarbon can distinguish the two factors, trophic enrichment and the below-ground processes (humification), both of which could influence the nitrogen isotopic signatures of the terrestrial consumers. Our results show that radiocarbon would provide insights into structures of terrestrial food webs as well as time frame of energy and material flows through the webs.

Summary 1We propose that diets of consumers in a food web have various ages, where age is defined as the time elapsed since carbon (C) in the diet was fixed from atmospheric CO2 by primary producers. To examine the diet ages for primary consumers in a detrital food web, we measured the radiocarbon (14C) content of termites collected in Thailand in 1998 and 2004. Diet ages were estimated by comparing the 14C content of samples with records of atmospheric 14CO2, which doubled in the early 1960s as a result of nuclear weapons tests and decreased after the nuclear test ban treaty. For comparison, we measured the 14C content of bees as primary consumers in a grazing web at the same study site. Stable carbon and nitrogen (N) isotope ratios were also analysed. 2The 14C contents of the same species of termites decreased during the sampling interval, indicating that they used organic matter produced after the peak in atmospheric 14CO2. The diet ages were estimated to be 12–18, 7–13 and 5–9 years for the wood-feeder (Microcerotermes crassus), the soil-feeders (Dicuspiditermes makhamensis and Termes comis) and the fungus-grower (Macrotermes carbonarius), respectively. One colony of soil-feeder (T. comis), which nested in a fallen tree trunk, had exceptionally low 14C content, and its diet age was estimated to be around 50 years. The two bee species had lower 14C contents compared with the termites, and their diet ages were estimated to be 0 (Apis florea) and 2–4 years (Trigona sp.). 3Stable C and N isotope ratios of termites showed similar patterns as previously reported, and no clear difference was observed between 1998 and 2004. Although the bees and the fungus-growing termite had similar stable C and N isotope ratios, their diet ages differed. 4Our study suggests that radiocarbon can be used to estimate the diet ages of consumers in terrestrial food webs. Diet age should provide new insight into the trophic positions of organisms in grazing and detrital food webs and the interactions between these two webs.

Summary 1To investigate whether the role of symbiotic fungi in lignin degradation and food provision differs among fungus-growing termites (four species of Macrotermes, three species of Odontotermes, Hypotermes makhamensis, Ancistrotermes pakistanicus and Pseudacanthotermes militaris), the chemical composition of fungus combs of different ages and the chitinolytic activity in the gut of termites were analysed. In addition, the carbon stable isotope ratios (δ13C) in old combs, worker termite tissues and fungal nodules (aggregated conidia) were compared. 2In Macrotermes spp., the carbohydrate : lignin ratio of the combs increased with increased comb age, but it decreased or remained the same in Odontotermes spp., H. makhamensis, A. pakistanicus and P. militaris. In contrast, the chitin : carbohydrate ratio and ash content increased more over time in the combs of Odontotermes spp., H. makhamensis, A. pakistanicus and P. militaris than in the combs of Macrotermes spp. 3Chitinolytic activity in the gut of workers was higher in O. takensis, H. makhamensis and A. pakistanicus than in M. annandalei. 4In all species examined, the δ13C value increased in the sequence: old combs < termites < fungal nodules. Based on a two-source model of δ13C, the contribution of fungi to termite nutrition was considered higher in Odontotermes spp., H. makhamensis, A. pakistanicus and P. militaris than in Macrotermes spp. 5These results suggest that symbiotic fungi play different roles among fungus-growing termites. In Macrotermes spp., the main role of symbiotic fungi is to degrade lignin, so that the termites can utilize cellulose more efficiently, whereas in Odontotermes spp., H. makhamensis, A. pakistanicus and P. militaris, it is to serve as a food source.