The power of poop: Defecation behaviors and social hygiene in insects

Marissa E. Cole; Javier A. Ceja-Navarro; Aram Mikaelyan

doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1009964

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The power of poop: Defecation behaviors and social hygiene in insects

Marissa E. Cole,

Affiliation Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America
⨯
Javier A. Ceja-Navarro,

Affiliations Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, California, United States of America, Bioengineering and Biomedical Sciences Department, Biological Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States of America, Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, United States of America

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2954-3477

⨯
Aram Mikaelyan

* E-mail: amikael@ncsu.edu

Affiliation Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7276-0194

⨯

The power of poop: Defecation behaviors and social hygiene in insects

Marissa E. Cole,
Javier A. Ceja-Navarro,
Aram Mikaelyan

Published: October 28, 2021
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1009964

About the Authors

Marissa E. Cole

Affiliation Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America

Javier A. Ceja-Navarro

Affiliations Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, California, United States of America, Bioengineering and Biomedical Sciences Department, Biological Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States of America, Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, United States of America

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2954-3477

Aram Mikaelyan

* E-mail: amikael@ncsu.edu

Affiliation Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7276-0194

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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Insects
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Beetles
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Microbiome
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Termites
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Animal behavior
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Fungal pathogens
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Nesting habits
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Defecation
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