Check List 16(6): 1537-1543, doi: 10.15560/16.6.1537
Coptotermes formosanus (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae) established in Israel and world distribution of a major termite pest
Rudolf H. Scheffrahn‡, Brian W. Bahder‡, Tomer Lu§‡ University of Florida, Davie, United States of America§ Total-Hadbara, Gedera, Israel
Corresponding author: Rudolf H. Scheffrahn ( rhsc@ufl.edu ) Academic editor: Leonardo de Oliveira Cardoso da Silva © Rudolf H. Scheffrahn, Brian W. Bahder, Tomer Lu. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Scheffrahn RH, Bahder BW, Lu T (2020) Coptotermes formosanus (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae) established in Israel and world distribution of a major termite pest. Check List 16(6): 1537-1543. https://doi.org/10.15560/16.6.1537 |  |
Abstract
The Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki, 1909, is a highly destructive structural pest endemic to East Asia. We report a land-based establishment of C. formosanus in Petah Tikva, Israel, over 6000 km from its nearest previous locality in China. The species’ identity was confirmed by soldier morphology and by COI sequence data. In addition, a population discovered in 1992 in suburban San Diego, California, USA, remains viable. Marathon hosts the first infestation of C. formosanus in the Florida Keys. The world distribution of C. formosanus is presented, and the biogeography and mechanisms of spread of this termite are discussed.
Keywords
COI sequence, new localities, soldier morphology, world distribution