Inward Daegan, Beccaloni George, Eggleton Paul
Soil Biodiversity Group, Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.
Biol Lett. 2007 Jun 22;3(3):331-5. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0102.
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.
它们复杂的社会生活方式使它们在整个热带地区都极其成功。尽管被称为“白蚁”，但它们并非蚂蚁，而且它们与其他昆虫的关系仍不明确。我们进行了迄今最为全面的分子系统发育分析，结果表明白蚁是社会性蟑螂，不再值得被归为与蟑螂（蜚蠊目）不同的一个单独目（等翅目）。相反，我们提议应将它们视为蟑螂的一个科（白蚁科）。令人惊讶的是，发现一群以木材为食的蟑螂已经进化出了完全的社会性，因为其他在生态上占主导地位的完全社会性昆虫（如蚂蚁、社会性蜜蜂和社会性黄蜂）是从独居的捕食性黄蜂进化而来的。
