ItalianTermiteMan
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2023
- Messages
- 146
Today i'll share with you a few words and a beautiful selection of pics by David Mora del Pozo (www.pasiontermitas.com, shared with permission) about the most widespread and overall damaging termite species in the US (and not only): Reticulitermes flavipes, the eastern subterranean termite.
While the vast majority of termites are exclusively a beneficial part of their habitats, a few do deserve the grim reputation termites as a whole (sadly) have, and the eastern subterranean termite is one of them. While not quite as damaging as the like of the invasive Coptotermes formosanus and C. gestroi (the Formosan and Asian subterranean termites) it is far more resistant to cold temperatures and thus vastly more widespread troughout the US and Canada, making it economically more significan as a whole.
While native to those areas, R. flavipes has done its fair share of "invading" aswell, and thanks to human travel and commerce is now enstablished in several European countries (including a pair of hotspots here in Italy), where it's often just as a dangerous pest as it is back home, if not more. Still, even in the case of pest species whose control is necessary like these it's good to remember that even they are beneficial decomposers in their native natural environements and were eating wood well before we starting to use it to build our stuff!
Soldiers and alates of Reticulitermes flavipes. Quite weird to think these two radically different creatures belong to the same exact species, but they are built for
two radically different tasks after all! Pic by David Mora del Pozo.
Again, soldiers and alates of R. flavipes. The formers are tubular-shaped, with large hard heads and specialized to defend the narrow passages of their nests.
The alate of R. flavipes; note its intricately veined diaphanous wings. Fun fact: the species name "flavipes" mean yellow-footed in latin...
and it's not hard to guess why it was chosen! Pic by David Mora del Pozo.
A beautiful macro of a worker's head, showing the complex mouthparts well adapted to borh shear wood and finely manipulate brood and building materials alike.
Note that those two frontal spots are not the eyes, but the primari point of articulation of the mandibles. Pic by David Mora del Pozo.
While the vast majority of termites are exclusively a beneficial part of their habitats, a few do deserve the grim reputation termites as a whole (sadly) have, and the eastern subterranean termite is one of them. While not quite as damaging as the like of the invasive Coptotermes formosanus and C. gestroi (the Formosan and Asian subterranean termites) it is far more resistant to cold temperatures and thus vastly more widespread troughout the US and Canada, making it economically more significan as a whole.
While native to those areas, R. flavipes has done its fair share of "invading" aswell, and thanks to human travel and commerce is now enstablished in several European countries (including a pair of hotspots here in Italy), where it's often just as a dangerous pest as it is back home, if not more. Still, even in the case of pest species whose control is necessary like these it's good to remember that even they are beneficial decomposers in their native natural environements and were eating wood well before we starting to use it to build our stuff!
Soldiers and alates of Reticulitermes flavipes. Quite weird to think these two radically different creatures belong to the same exact species, but they are built for
two radically different tasks after all! Pic by David Mora del Pozo.
Again, soldiers and alates of R. flavipes. The formers are tubular-shaped, with large hard heads and specialized to defend the narrow passages of their nests.
The alate of R. flavipes; note its intricately veined diaphanous wings. Fun fact: the species name "flavipes" mean yellow-footed in latin...
and it's not hard to guess why it was chosen! Pic by David Mora del Pozo.
A beautiful macro of a worker's head, showing the complex mouthparts well adapted to borh shear wood and finely manipulate brood and building materials alike.
Note that those two frontal spots are not the eyes, but the primari point of articulation of the mandibles. Pic by David Mora del Pozo.
