Biology of Termites

Biology of invasive termites: a worldwide review.

The number of recognized invasive termite species has increased from 17 in 1969 to 28 today. Fourteen species have been added to the list in the past 44 years; 10 have larger distributions and 4 have no reported change in distribution, and 3 species are no longer considered invasive. Although most research has focused on invasive termites in urban areas, molecular identification methods have an...

Biology of Subterranean Termites in the Eastern United States

Termites

Termites (Isoptera) are plagued by bad press. They destroy the livelihood of tropical farmers, literally eat their way through our homes, and even threaten our cultural heritage, including assaults on the Statue of Liberty in New York, the ancient books of the Vatican, or the historical city of Isfahan in Iran. One estimate from 2005 put the annual damage at about US$ 50 billion worldwide, with...

A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of termites (Isoptera) illuminates key aspects of their evolutionary biology.

The first comprehensive combined molecular and morphological phylogenetic analysis of the major groups of termites is presented. This was based on the analysis of three genes (cytochrome oxidase II, 12S and 28S) and worker characters for approximately 250 species of termites. Parsimony analysis of the aligned dataset showed that the monophyly of Hodotermitidae, Kalotermitidae and Termitidae wer...

Termites and Ecosystem Function

The several ways termites interact with the plant-soil-litter system are outlined in a conceptual web of pathways to show how distinct actions of termites may impact ecosystem functioning, either positively or negatively. That is, because of their several modes of feeding and nesting, termites may act as agents of decomposition or pedogenesis, pests, competitors of grazing livestock, or as sour...