How Much Does Termite Control Cost for Dummies

Termites are eusocial insects which are classified in 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 Triassic.

About 3,106 species are currently clarified, 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 from the distinct order Hymenoptera, termites split labour among castes consisting of sterile male and female"employees" and"soldiers". All colonies have fertile men called"kings" and one or more fertile females called"queens". Termites chiefly 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 most landmasses except Antarctica. Their colonies range in size from a couple hundred individuals to enormous societies with several million individuals. Termite queens have the longest lifespan of any insect in the world, with a few queens reportedly living up to 30 to 50 years.

Colonies are described as superorganisms because the termites form part of a self-regulating entity: the colony itself. .

Termites are a delicacy in the diet of several human civilizations and are employed in many traditional medicines. A couple hundred species are economically significant as insects that can cause serious damage to buildings, crops, or plantation forests. Some species, like the West Indian drywood termite (Cryptotermes brevis), are considered as invasive species. .

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The infraorder name Isoptera is derived from the Greek words iso (equal) and ptera (winged), which describes the nearly equal size of the fore and hind wings.2"Termite" derives from the Latin and Late Latin word termes ("woodworm, white ant"), altered from the influence of Latin terere ("to rub, wear, erode") by the earlier word tarmes.

The external appearance of the giant northern termite Mastotermes darwiniensis is suggestive of the intimate relationship between termites and cockroaches.

Termites were previously placed in the order Isoptera. As early as 1934 suggestions were made they were closely linked to wood-eating cockroaches (genus Cryptocercus, the woodroach) based on the similarity of the symbiotic gut flagellates.6 In the 1960s additional evidence supporting that hypothesis emerged when F. A. McKittrick noted comparable morphological characteristics between a number of termites and Cryptocercus nymphs.7 In 2008 DNA analysis from 16S rRNA sequences8 affirmed the position of termites being nested go to this web-site within the evolutionary tree containing the order Blattodea, which included that the cockroaches.910 The cockroach genus Cryptocercus shares the strongest phylogenetical similarity with termites and is considered to be a sister-group to termites.1112 Termites and Cryptocercus share similar morphological and societal features: for example, most cockroaches do not exhibit societal characteristics, but Cryptocercus takes good care of its young and displays other social behavior 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 under.15 Termites have long been accepted to be closely related to cockroaches and mantids, and they're classified in the exact 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 these insects, they probably originated before in the Jurassic or Triassic.181920 Further evidence of a Jurassic origin is the assumption that the extinct Fruitafossor consumed termites, judging from the morphological resemblance to modern termite-eating mammals.21 The earliest termite nest detected is believed to be by the Upper Cretaceous in West Texas, in which the oldest known faecal pellets have been discovered.22 Claims that termites emerged previously have faced controversy.

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Weesner indicated the Mastotermitidae termites may go back 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's even possible that the 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 exactly the same pattern.24 Krishna et al., though, consider that all of the Paleozoic and Triassic additional reading insects tentatively classified as termites are in fact unrelated to termites and should be excluded out of the Isoptera.26 The primitive giant northern termite (Mastotermes darwiniensis) exhibits numerous cockroach-like attributes 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 known as"white ants" but the only resemblance to the ants is due to their sociality which is because of convergent evolution2930 with termites being the first social insects to evolve a caste system more than 100 million years ago.31 Termite genomes are generally relatively large compared to that of other insects; the first completely sequenced termite genome, of Zootermopsis nevadensis, which was printed in the journal Nature Communications, consists of approximately 500Mb,32 while two subsequently released genomes, Macrotermes natalensis and Cryptotermes secundus, are considerably larger at around 1.3Gb.3330.