Perdereau Elfie, Baudouin Guillaume, Bankhead-Dronnet Stéphanie, Chevalier Zoé, Zimmermann Marie, Dupont Simon, Dedeine Franck, Bagnères Anne-Geneviève
IRBI, UMR 7261 CNRS-Université de Tours. Avenue Monge, Parc Grandmont, Tours 37200, France.
LBLGC, INRA, Université d'Orléans, USC 1328, Orléans 45067, France.
Insects. 2019 Jan 15;10(1):30. doi: 10.3390/insects10010030.
Termites are social insects that can also be major pests. A well-known problem species is the subterranean termite, . It is invasive in France and is thought to have arrived from Louisiana during the 18th century. While the putative source of French populations has been identified, little is known about how the termite spread following its establishment. Here, we examined expansion patterns at different spatial scales in urban areas to clarify how spread in France. Based on our analyses of phylogeography and population genetics, results suggest a scenario of successive introductions into the Charente-Maritime region, on the Atlantic Coast. Two major expansion fronts formed: one that spread toward the northeast and the other toward the southeast. At the regional scale, different spatial and genetic distribution patterns were observed: there was heterogeneity in Île-de-France and aggregation in Centre-Val de Loire. At the local scale, we found that our three focal urban sites each formed a single large colony that contained several secondary reproductives. Our findings represent a second step in efforts to reconstruct termite's invasion dynamics. They also highlight the role that may have been played by the French railway network in transporting termites over long distances.
白蚁是社会性昆虫，同时也可能成为主要害虫。一种广为人知的问题物种是地下白蚁。它在法国具有入侵性，据信是在18世纪从路易斯安那州传入的。虽然法国种群的假定来源已被确定，但对于白蚁在定殖后如何扩散却知之甚少。在此，我们研究了城市地区不同空间尺度上的扩张模式，以阐明其在法国的扩散方式。基于我们对系统地理学和种群遗传学的分析，结果表明存在一种相继引入大西洋沿岸滨海夏朗德省的情况。形成了两个主要的扩张前沿：一个向东北方向扩散，另一个向东南方向扩散。在区域尺度上，观察到了不同的空间和遗传分布模式：在法兰西岛存在异质性，而在中央-卢瓦尔河谷存在聚集现象。在局部尺度上，我们发现我们的三个重点城市地点各自形成了一个单一的大蚁群，其中包含几只次级繁殖蚁。我们的研究结果是重建白蚁入侵动态工作的第二步。它们还凸显了法国铁路网络在长距离运输白蚁过程中可能发挥的作用。
