Fig. 1

Alpha and beta diversity comparisons across runs and soldier specimen types show caste-based distinctions. a, b Boxplots of Observed Species and Faith’s Phylogenetic Diversity metrics for major and minor M. falciger soldiers (dark and light blue) and for M. natalensis soldiers (orange), with significances of between group comparisons shown. c-e Ordination of OTU-level relative abundance using Bray-Curtis dissimilarity shows caste (major/minor) and species (M. falciger/M.natalensis) separation by run (top plots) and outlined by caste (for M. facliger solid lines) and by mound (for M. natalensis dashed lines), and f unweighted UniFrac distance on all samples combined across runs shows that samples stratify by run on PCo2 and by type on PCo1. g Heatplot of OTUs filtered for taxa at ≥0.1% abundance in at least 10% of samples shows z-score levels of the OTU relative abundance clustered by Ward’s method for both OTUs (rows) and samples (columns). Samples are colored along the top row by run, type, and by mound. h Barplots of summarized family-level taxa at 1% abundance in at least 20% of samples averaged by mound and by termite species/caste