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Termites are eusocial insects that are classified at the taxonomic rank of infraorder Isoptera, or as epifamily Termitoidae within the cockroach order Blattodea. Termites were once classified in a separate order from cockroaches, but recent phylogenetic studies indicate that they evolved from near ancestors of cockroaches during the Jurassic or Triassic.
Approximately 3,106 species are currently described, using a few hundred more left to be clarified. Although these insects are often called"white ants", they are not ants. .
Like ants and a few bees and wasps in the distinct order Hymenoptera, termites divide labour among castes consisting of sterile male and female"workers" and"soldiers". All colonies have fertile men called"kings" and one or more fertile females known as"queens". Termites mostly feed on dead plant material and cellulose, generally in the kind of wood, leaf litter, soil, or animal dung.
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Termites are among the most successful groups of insects on Earth, colonising many landmasses except Antarctica. Their colonies range in size from a couple hundred individuals to enormous societies using many million individuals. Termite queens have the longest lifespan of any insect in the world, with some queens allegedly living around 30 to 50 years.
Colonies are described as superorganisms since the termites form part of a self-regulating entity: the colony itself. .
Termites are a delicacy in the diet of some human cultures and are used in many traditional medicines. A couple hundred species are economically significant as pests which can cause considerable damage to buildings, crops, or plantation forests. Some species, such as the West Indian drywood termite (Cryptotermes brevis), are considered as invasive species. .
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The infraorder name Isoptera comes from the Greek words iso (equivalent ) and ptera (winged), which refers to the nearly equivalent size of the fore and hind wings.2"Termite" derives from the Latin and Late Latin term termes ("woodworm, white ant"), altered by the influence of Latin terere ("to rub, wear, erode") from the prior word tarmes.
The external appearance of the giant northern termite Mastotermes darwiniensis is indicative of the intimate relationship between termites and cockroaches.
Termites were formerly placed in the order Isoptera. As early as 1934 suggestions were made that they were closely related to wood-eating cockroaches (genus Cryptocercus, the woodroach) dependent on the similarity of the symbiotic gut flagellates.6 In the 1960s additional evidence supporting that theory appeared when F. A. McKittrick noted comparable morphological traits between a number of termites and Cryptocercus nymphs.7 In 2008 DNA analysis from 16S rRNA sequences8 affirmed the position of termites being nested within the evolutionary tree containing the order Blattodea, which included that the cockroaches.910 The cockroach genus Cryptocercus stocks the strongest phylogenetical similarity with termites and is considered to be a sister-group to termites.1112 Termites and Cryptocercus share similar morphological and social features: for example, most cockroaches do not exhibit societal characteristics, but Cryptocercus takes good care of its own young and displays other social behaviour like trophallaxis and allogrooming.13 Termites are regarded as the descendants of the genus Cryptocercus.914 Some researchers have suggested that a more conservative step of retaining the termites as the Termitoidae, an epifamily within the cockroach sequence, which averts the classification of termites in family level and below.15 Termites have long been approved to be closely related to cockroaches and mantids, and they are categorized in precisely the same superorder (Dictyoptera).1617.
The earliest unambiguous termite fossils date to the early Cretaceous, but given the diversity of Cretaceous termites and ancient fossil records showing mutualism between microorganisms and such insects, they probably originated earlier in the Jurassic or Triassic.181920 Further evidence of a Jurassic origin would be that the assumption that the extinct Fruitafossor consumed termites, judging from the morphological resemblance to modern termite-eating mammals.21 The earliest termite nest discovered is thought to be by the Upper Cretaceous in West Texas, where the earliest known faecal pellets were also discovered.22 Claims that footprints arose previously have faced find out here controversy.
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Weesner indicated the Mastotermitidae termites may return to the late Permian, 251 million years ago,23 and fossil wings which have a close resemblance to the wings of Mastotermes of the Mastotermitidae, the toughest living termite, have been discovered in the Permian layers in Kansas.24 It is even possible that the very first termites emerged during the Carboniferous.25 The folded wings of the fossil wood roach Pycnoblattina, arranged in a convex pattern between segments 1a and 2a, resemble those seen in Mastotermes, the only living insect with the identical pattern.24 Krishna et al., though, consider that all of the Paleozoic and Triassic insects tentatively classified as termites are in fact unrelated to termites and needs to be excluded from the Isoptera.26 The primitive giant northern termite (Mastotermes darwiniensis) exhibits numerous cockroach-like characteristics that are not shared with other termites, like laying its eggs in rafts and having anal lobes on the wings.27 Cryptocercidae and Isoptera are united in the clade Xylophagidae.28 Termites are sometimes called"white ants" but the only resemblance to the ants is due to their sociality which is due to convergent evolution2930 with termites being the very first social insects to evolve a caste system more than 100 million years ago.31 Termite genomes are generally comparatively large in comparison to that of other insects; the first completely sequenced termite genome, of Zootermopsis nevadensis, that was printed in the journal Nature Communications, consists of roughly 500Mb,32 while two subsequently published genomes, Macrotermes natalensis and Cryptotermes secundus, are considerably larger at around 1.3Gb.3330.