The family structure of termites

Abstract

Termites are the oldest known – and beyond that an ecological very important – group of eusocial insects. In contrast to the eusocial Hymenoptera their colonies are not dominated by female individuals (queens, workers and sometimes soldiers) but typically also contain kings as well as male workers and soldiers. The soldier caste has evolved earlier than the one of the workers and until today some species, the so called “one-piece” termites which always stay in the same piece of wood, lack a true worker caste. Primary reproductives sometimes can be replaced by secondary reproductives. Moreover, some species do not live in a “classical family” (one pair of parents and their offspring) but in “patchwork families” or replace the primary queen by a kind of “harem” of secondary queens (asexual queen succession).