Habitat
From a geographical standpoint, Cryptotermes cavifrons lives in a wide range of areas. Those areas include Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, the Turks islands, the Caicos Islands, and the Florida peninsula. This insect prefers a drier areas but still requires some moisture, so it is unlikely that C. cavifrons would infest buildings or anything of the nature. Rather, the preferred choices of infestation would infestation would include branches, nonliving trees, and dry stumps. A sample conducted in 2002 shows that nearly half of the wood eating termites collected were C. cavifrons (Brammer and Scheffrahn 2002).
C. cavifrons form nests within dry wood. They, along with all dry wood termites typically have a low moisture nests relative to damp wood termites which usually live in rotting wood close to moisture rich soil. The low moisture content results in less fungi and less bacteria, which lead to less colony forming units. Dry wood termites, such as C. cavifrons, in turn have less exposure to pathogens. Dry wood termites may have less resistance to pathogens than damp wood termites because of the conditions in which they live (Rosengaus et al 2003). More research is required to determine if the lack of pathogen exposure leads to lower immunity.
These insects require time to make their colonies. In some cases, it may take five years or longer for a colony to form. Much time is needed because dry wood lacks resources for rapid growth. Even if they had all the resources necessary for rapid growth, colony development would still be very slow due to low reproduction rates. One such resource is water. Water is a typically limited resource, but during certain times of the year it can be nearly nonexistent. As discussed in the Form and Functions section, C. cavifrons have adapted for conditions with limited water availability (Brammer and Scheffrahn 2002).
Although these termites tend to avoid manmade structures, in favor of low moisture dead wood, they will infest homes and other buildings. These cases are rare but when they do occur, measures should be taken quickly. Rather than dispersing through a building, C. cavifrons usually choose a single piece of wood to grow a colony. This piece of wood is typically sturdy and dry. If the original forming colony is not caught and disposed of in a timely matter, then more colonies may form. This occurs when newly formed termites leave the nest and form colonies of their own, which also stay in one localized region. The formation of many localized colonies is what leads to a wide spread of termites (Brammer and Scheffrahn 2002).
C. cavifrons are eusocial insects, which means that they cooperate with each other in their colonies. One example of cooperation is that they care for their young collectively instead of just the parents tending to their young. There are also different roles for termites in colonies. These roles include workers, soldiers, and termites used for reproduction (Brammer and Scheffrahn 2002). Together they make up a self sustaining colony that can fend for itself despite slow reproduction and limited resources.