Amber Listserv / Death of an order:

[JOHN FUDALA]

*Death of an order: a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study confirms
that termites are eusocial cockroaches*

 Daegan Inward AFF1, George Beccaloni AFF1, Paul Eggleton AFF1

AFF1 Soil Biodiversity Group, Department of Entomology, The Natural History
Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK

*Abstract:*

 Termites are instantly recognizable mound-builders and house-eaters: their
complex social lifestyles have made them incredibly successful throughout
the tropics. Although known as 'white ants', they are not ants and their
relationships with other insects remain unclear. Our molecular phylogenetic
analyses, the most comprehensive yet attempted, show that termites are
social cockroaches, no longer meriting being classified as a separate order
(Isoptera) from the cockroaches (Blattodea). Instead, we propose that they
should be treated as a family (Termitidae) of cockroaches. It is surprising
to find that a group of wood-feeding cockroaches has evolved full sociality,
as other ecologically dominant fully social insects (e.g. ants, social bees
and social wasps) have evolved from solitary predatory wasps

http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/(buqz2m45bcguknyr5ibiw555)/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,14,38;journal,1,11;linkingpublicationresults,1:110824,1
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