Population Structure of the Drywood Termite Incisitermes schwarzi (Blattodea: Kalotermitidae) in the Caribbean

Two new Incisitermes (Isoptera: Kalotermitidae) species from the Caribbean Basin, genetic relationships with other regional Incisitermes, and synonymy of Incisitermes tabogae with I. schwarzi

“…They found I. incisus forming a clade with I. rhyzophorae, and I. snyderi with I. schwarzi. The relationship of I. schwarzi relative to I. snyderi that we observed has also been observed by Austin et al (2012) and Janowiecki et al (2020) using the same mtDNA 16S genetic marker. Another study by Ide et al (2016) on Incisitermes species in Japan used seven of the same species as our study for their mtDNA 16S phylogenetic tree.…”

Phylogeography of Nasutitermes ephratae (Termitidae: Nasutitermitinae) in neotropical region

“…Specifically, for these island populations, it is possible that the dispersion from northern South America to the Antilles occurred via flotsam or floating wood carried to the islands by oceanic currents. This kind of dispersion has already been detected for Caribbean termite species 65 . Most of the islands’ termite species analyzed here are compose of haplogroup 3 together with samples from French Guiana (BOR dominion) and Trinidad and Tobago (located in the transition between BOR and PAC).…”

“…Although dispersion by water (inside flotsam carried by ocean or river currents or ferried by vessels) helps to explain dispersion patterns for termite species 55 , 64 , 65 , it is more likely that the paths taken by the populations of N. ephratae were overland, which makes the PAC dominion an obligatory passage for the dispersal of populations between South and Central America. This dominion harbor peculiarly haplotypes from all haplogroups and present a higher value of intra-dominion genetic distance (Table 2 b).…”