Termites spread globally by crossing the oceans on driftwood rafts

An evaluation of drywood termite DNA reveals the wood-dwelling bugs have crossed the oceans at the very least 40 occasions of their historical past, most likely rafting inside driftwood

By Jake Buehler

One group of termites are recurring seafarers, suggests new analysis. The wood-munching bugs crossed the world’s oceans at the very least 40 occasions over the previous few tens of hundreds of thousands of years. The termites most likely set sail by accident, rafting inside items of wooden washed out to sea.

Drywood termites make up the second-largest termite household, the Kalotermitidae, with greater than 400 species discovered all through the tropics and subtropics. Not like many different termite teams, members of drywood termite colonies don’t forage between wooden …