Reproductive dynamics and colony structure of subterranean termites of the genusReticulitermes(Isoptera Rhinotermitidae): a review of the evidence from behavioral, ecological, and genetic studies

Sex ratio biases in termites provide evidence for kin selection

“…Termite colonies are typically founded by a monogamous pair of primary reproductives (adult winged forms), one king and one queen. In Reticulitermes termites, neotenics (also called secondary reproductives or supplementary reproductives) are produced from within the colony upon the death of the primary king and/or queen 21,22 . As colonies develop, neotenic queens may differentiate even under the presence of reigning queens to supplement egg production according to the labour needs of the colony.…”

Genetic diversity and colony breeding structure in native and introduced ranges of the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus

“…Budding occurs when a portion of a colony gradually splits off and becomes a separate reproductive unit. During the process of budding genetically differentiated nests may still exchange workers (Husseneder et al 1998) which results in positive F IC -values (Thorne et al 1999;Bulmer et al 2001). Thus, budding may be a viable form of colony propagation in the Hawaiian islands; although this is rare in other C. formosanus populations (Vargo and Husseneder 2009).…”

“…Outside of Hawaii, only 1 of 13 extended family colonies in South Carolina showed positive F IC values, while none of the 47 extended family colonies from three native populations from China (this study and Husseneder et al 2008) and none of the over 43 extended families from the introduced range of Louisiana Aluko and Husseneder 2007), North Carolina and Japan Perdereau et al 2010b), relatedness among workers is expected to drop below 0.5 (Thorne et al 1999;Bulmer et al 2001), and worker genotypes would not be consistent with being the offspring of neotenics whose origin can be traced back to a single founder pair. However, all Hawaiian colonies with positive F IC showed high relatedness (0.52-0.72), and none had more than four alleles per locus.…”

“…As previously reviewed (Vargo and Husseneder 2009), F IC is the coefficient of inbreeding in individuals relative to their colony and reflects most clearly the colony's breeding system (Bulmer and Traniello 2002;Thorne et al 1999;Bulmer et al 2001). Empirical F IC values of colonies were compared among populations via independent samples t-test not assuming equal variances, and to values predicted by the computer simulations for different breeding systems (Bulmer et al 2001;Thorne et al 1999) by one-sample t-tests (SPSS 17.0).…”

“…Empirical F IC values of colonies were compared among populations via independent samples t-test not assuming equal variances, and to values predicted by the computer simulations for different breeding systems (Bulmer et al 2001;Thorne et al 1999) by one-sample t-tests (SPSS 17.0). In addition, one-tailed one-sample t-tests were used to test F IC values across all loci for each extended family colony to establish the proportion of colonies for which F IC was significantly greater than zero (which would indicate assortative mating, mixing of colonies, and/or budding), not significantly different from zero (high number of neotenic reproductives) or significantly lower than zero (low number of reproductives) (Bulmer et al 2001;Thorne et al 1999).…”