Data for: Marking through moults: An evaluation of visible implant elastomer to permanently mark individuals in a lower termite species

1. Advances in individual marking methods have facilitated detailed
studies of animal populations and behaviour as they allow tracking of
individuals through time and space. Hemimetabolous insects, representing a
wide range of commonly-used model organisms, present a unique challenge to
individual marking as they are not only generally small-bodied, but also
moult throughout development, meaning that traditional surface marks are
not persistent. 2. Visible implant elastomer (VIE) offers a potential
solution as small amounts of the inert polymer can be implanted under the
skin or cuticle of an animal. VIE has proved useful for individually
marking fish, crustaceans and amphibians in both field and laboratory
studies, and has recently been successfully trialled in laboratory
populations of worms and fly larvae. We trialled VIE in the single-piece
nesting termite Zootermopsis angusticollis, a small hemimetabolous insect.
3. We found that there was no effect of VIE on survival and that marks
persisted following moulting. However, we found some evidence that marked
termites performed less allogrooming and trophallaxis than controls,
although effect sizes were very small. 4. Our study suggests that VIE is
an effective technique for marking small hemimetabolous insects like
termites but we advocate that caution is applied, particularly when
behavioural observation is important.