Eastern Subterranean Termite

Reticulitermes flavipes — the eastern subterranean termite — is the most economically destructive structural pest in North America and one of the most-studied termites in the world. The species inhabits underground colonies of 100,000 to over 1 million workers, with above-ground access provided by characteristic 'mud tubes' constructed of soil, saliva, and frass that allow workers to travel from the moist soil to dry wood without exposure to predators or desiccation. Termites are technically wood-eating cockroaches: a phylogenetic revision in the 2000s moved the order Isoptera into the cockroach order Blattodea (as the epifamily Termitoidae) after molecular evidence demonstrated that termites are nested within the cockroach phylogeny, descending from an ancestral wood-eating cockroach. The eusocial caste system (queen, king, workers, soldiers, alates) of termites evolved completely independently from the eusociality of ants, bees, and wasps (order Hymenoptera) — making termite eusociality one of the most spectacular cases of convergent evolution in animal behavior. Estimated damage to US wood structures from R. flavipes and related Reticulitermes species exceeds $5 billion per year — more than fire and storm damage combined for many regions. The colony is hierarchically organized: alates (winged reproductives) emerge in spring 'swarms,' mate, drop their wings, and found new colonies; the founding pair becomes the king and queen, and the queen can live 25+ years and lay 2,000 eggs per day at peak.