Formosan Subterranean Termites Thrive in the Southern United States

Summary: Formosan subterranean termites realize heaviest distribution ranges in the United States from South Carolina through Texas and in California and Hawaii.

Soldiers account for about 10 percent of a Formosan subterranean termite (Coptotermes formosanus) colony; USDA ARS image number K8085-3: Scott Bauer, Public Domain, via USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Agricultural Research Service

Formosan subterranean termites achieve their easiest adaptations to distribution ranges, life cycles and physical appearances within the humid, moist-soiled, warm United States from South Carolina through Texas and in California and Hawaii.

Formosan subterranean termites bear their common name because of Taiwanese biogeographies of the first specimens brought into Carl Linneaus's (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778) taxonomic systems. They carry the scientific name Coptotermes formosanus (from the Greek κόπτω, [front-headed, latex-secreting glandular pore] kóptō, "cut [open]," and the Latin tarmes, "woodworm" and fōrmōsānus, "Formosan"). Taxonomies defer to Tokuichi Shiraki's (March 9, 1882-Dec. 22, 1970) scientific descriptions in 1909 of Taiwanese specimens in Masamitsu Oshima's (June 21, 1884-June 26, 1965) collection.

Formosa, from the same-spelled Portuguese word for "beautiful," endures as a 16th- and 17th-century name for Taiwan and in namesake termites exiting on Taiwan from China.

April through June or July furnish Formosan subterranean termite life cycles with swarming months for their alates (from the Latin ālātus, "winged"), the colony's reproductive caste.

The permanent queen gets a three-caste colony of up to 10 million colonists within three to five years by generating up to 2,000 eggs each day. Eggs of kings and queens and their secondary reproductives hatch, at 68-plus degrees Fahrenheit (20-plus degrees Celsius), within two to four weeks into egg-sized, heavy-feeding larvae. Off-white to white, soft-bodied workers, identified scientifically as pseudergates (from the Greek ψεύδω, pseúdō, "deceive," and ἐργάτης, ergátēs, "workman") investigate cellulose and non-cellulose, immediate-area food sources.

Species-specific physical appearances of Formosan subterranean termites join 0.047 to 0.051-inch- (1.2- to 1.8-millimeter-) wide heads to narrower-thoraxed, 0.16- to 0.19-inch- (4- to 5-millimeter-) long bodies.

Formosan termite workers keep larvae ingesting worker-regurgitated wood and 0.09- to 0.39-inch (0.25- to 1.0-centimeter) aerial, secondary, subsidiary and subterranean nest galleries and shelter tubes functional.

Workers look like North American native counterparts even as worker-sized soldiers, with curved mandibles and flat, narrow, orange-brown bodies, look unlike Reticulitermes flavipes ("yellow-footed reticulated termites"). Oval-headed soldiers make up 10 to 15 percent, versus rectangle-headed natives' 1 to 2 percent, of colony populations and manifest maximum aggressiveness toward intruders and invaders. Colonies need workers for forages and repairs; soldiers for latex from oval-shaped fontanelle (from the Latin fontanella, "fountain") to neutralize outsiders; and reproductives for new colonies.

Formosan subterranean termites obtain in their three-caste colonies 0.47- to 0.59-inch- (12- to 15-millimeter-) long, yellow-brown reproductives with veined front, veinless hind, equal-sized, fine-haired, translucent wings.

Temporary-winged Formosan subterranean termite reproductives pursue colony-shopping, 20- to 50-yard- (18.29- to 45.72-meter-) long flights between dusk and midnight near lighted buildings after rainy warm days for new sites.

Three-plus-cubic-foot (0.085-cubic-meter) nesting areas between frost lines and water tables and 800-plus-foot (243.84-meter) foraging diameters qualify as colonizable if they queue up woody plants and products. Formosan subterranean termites ruin ash (Fraxinus), cedar (Chamaecyparis), citrus, cypress (Taxodium), eucalyptus, gum (Liquidamber), laurel (Cinnamomum), maple (Acer), oak, pine, spruce (Picea) and sugarcane (Saccharum) species. They serve as structural stressors to non-cellulose materials such as asphalt, copper, lead or plastic; dead and living shrubs, trees and vines; and timber industry products.

Formosan subterranean termites thrive, as non-native American species, between 32 degrees North and South latitudes and 62.6 to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit (17 and 32 degrees Celsius).

Formosan subterranean soldiers and workers repair a hole in their nest; termites at about four times actual size; USDA ARS image number K8210-10; October 1998: Scott Bauer, Public Domain, via USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Agricultural Research Service

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Soldiers account for about 10 percent of a Formosan subterranean termite (Coptotermes formosanus) colony; USDA ARS image number K8085-3: Scott Bauer, Public Domain, via USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Agricultural Research Service @ https://www.ars.usda.gov/oc/images/photos/formosan/k8085-3/

Formosan subterranean soldiers and workers repair a hole in their nest; termites at about four times actual size; USDA ARS image number K8210-10; October 1998: Scott Bauer, Public Domain, via USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Agricultural Research Service @ https://www.ars.usda.gov/oc/images/photos/oct98/k8210-10

For further information:

Harris, Samuel Y. 2001. Building Pathology: Deterioration, Diagnostics, and Intervention. New York NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Li, Hou-Feng; Nan-Yao Su; and Wen-Jer Wu. 1 October 2010. "Solving the Hundred-Year Controversy of Coptotermes Taxonomy in Taiwan." American Entomologist, vol. 56, issue 4 (Winter 2010): 222-229.
Available via Oxford University Press (OUP) Academic @ https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/56/4/222/2389766

Myles, Timothy George. "Eastern Subterranean Termite: Reticulitermes flavipes." In: Michael Hutchins, Arthur V. Evans, Rosser W. Garrison and Neil Schlager (eds.). Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 3, Insects: 172-173. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2003.

Shiraki, T. (Tokyichi). 1909. "Honposan shiroari ni suite." [On the Termites of Japan.] Tokyo Nipp Sanshi Kw Ho [Transactions of the Entomological Society of Japan] 2: 229-242.

Wasmann, E. (Erich). 1896. "Viaggio di Leonardo Fea in Birmania e Regione Vicine. LXXII. Neue Termitophilen und Termiten aus Indien. I-III." Annali del Museo Cívico di Storia Naturale di Genova, Serie 2, XVI (XXXVI): 613-630. Genova [Genoa], Italy: R. Istituto Sordo-Muti.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7698233