Mastotermes is a genus of termites. The sole living species is Mastotermes darwiniensis, found only in northern Australia. A number of extinct taxa are known from fossils. It is a very peculiar insect, the most primitive termite alive.[1] As such, it shows notable similarities to cockroaches in the family Cryptocercidae, the termites' closest relatives. These similarities include the anal lobe of the wing and the laying of eggs in bunches, rather than singly. The termites were traditionally placed in the Exopterygota, but such an indiscriminate treatment makes that group a paraphyletic grade of basal neopterans. Thus, the cockroaches, termites and their relatives are nowadays placed in a clade called Dictyoptera.
These singular termites appear at first glance like a cockroaches abdomen with a termite's head and thorax. Their wings have the same design as those of the cockroaches, and its eggs are laid in a case as are cockroach eggs. It is thought to have evolved from the same ancestors as the wood roaches (Cryptocercus) in the Permian. Fossil wings have been discovered in the Permian of Kansas which have a close resemblance to wings of Mastotermes of the Mastotermitidae,[2] which is the most primitive living termite. This fossil species is Pycnoblattina. It folded its wings in a convex pattern between segments 1a and 2a. Mastotermes darwiniensis is the only living insect that does the same.[3] However, Pycnoblattina has been demonstrated to be unrelated to termites and the earliest termites are from the latest Jurassic-earliest Cretaceous. Unlike cockroaches, not all termites have wings: Only the reproductives, (see Termites-life cycle) whose wings are considerably longer than their abdomen. Mastotermes darwiniensis is usually not very numerous, nor are the colonies large when left to natural conditions. However, when given abundant water(such as regular irrigation) and favourable food & soil conditions (such as stored timber or timber structures), populations can be enormous, numbering in the millions, quickly destroying their host. Its diet is varied, as it will eat introduced plants, damage ivory and leather, and wood and debris, in fact almost anything organic. It becomes a major agricultural pest, to the extent that vegetable farming has been virtually abandoned in Northern Australia[4] wherever this termite is numerous, which it is outside of the rain forest or bauxite soils.[5] It has developed the ability to bore up into a living tree and ring bark it such that it dies and becomes the center of a colony.
Mastotermes darwiniensis is the only known host of the symbiotic protozoan Mixotricha paradoxa, remarkable for its multiple bacterial symbionts.
^[1] Tree of Life Web Project. 2003. Isoptera. Termites. Version 1 January 2003 (temporary). http://tolweb.org/Isoptera/8212/2003.01.01 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
^Tillyard RJ (1937) Kansas Permian insects. Part XX the cockroaches, or order Blattaria I, II Am. Journal of Science 34; 169-202, 249-276.
^Hill, G.F., (1942)but modern termite management has allowed horticultural development since World War 2, although it can at times be a problem. Termites (Isoptera) from the Australian Region. H.E. Daw, Govt. Printer, Melbourne, Austr.
^Brittan EB et al. (30 authors) (1970) The Insects of Australia. Melbourne University Press. On p285
Mastotermes is a genus of termites. The sole living species is Mastotermes darwiniensis, found only in northern Australia. A number of extinct taxa are...
ISBN 978-0544859937. Media related to Mastotermes darwiniensis at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Mastotermes darwiniensis at Wikispecies Weesner, F...
only living species of Mastotermes is Mastotermes darwiniensis which is found in tropical regions of Northern Australia. Mastotermes electromexicus is known...
ago, and fossil wings that have a close resemblance to the wings of Mastotermes of the Mastotermitidae, the most primitive living termite, have been...
Mastotermitidae is a family of termites with one sole living species, Mastotermes darwiniensis which is found only in northern Australia. The remaining...
cockroach family, the Cryptocercidae, and one primitive species of termite, Mastotermes darwiniensis, share such characteristics as the segmental origin of certain...
both. The protist Mixotricha paradoxa, itself an endosymbiont of the Mastotermes darwiniensis termite, is always found as a consortium of at least one...
termites follow, they will continue to add to the trail. The basal termite Mastotermes darwiniensis produces trail pheromones from at least two sternal glands...
to which the term archedictyon has been applied include the termite Mastotermes darwiniensis from Australia (illustration)[infringing link?] and the...
various mycotoxins. It was first isolated from the hindgut of the termite Mastotermes darwiniensis. It has been shown to detoxify mycotoxins such as ochratoxin...
Margulis, L. (2002). "Spirochete and protist symbionts of a termite (Mastotermes electrodominicus) in Miocene amber". Proceedings of the National Academy...
protozoan that lives inside the gut of the Australian termite species Mastotermes darwiniensis. It is composed of five different organisms: three bacterial...
Isoptericola which has been isolated from the hindgut of the termite Mastotermes darwiniensis in Germany. Parte, A.C. "Isoptericola". LPSN. "Isoptericola...
belonging to the family Hodotermopsidae. The type species is H. novella. Mastotermes reticulatus Sp. nov Valid Jiang, Zhao & Ren in Jiang et al. Late Cretaceous...
A. E. (1983). "A New Fossil Species of Termite from Mexican Amber, Mastotermes electromexicus (Isoptera, Mastotermitidae)" (PDF). American Museum Novitates...
exception of the genus Nocticola. The genus' presence in the termite Mastotermes darwiniensis led to speculation, later confirmed, that termites and cockroaches...
however a possible host of T. avitinquilinus is the extinct termite Mastotermes electrodominicus, the type specimens being preserved associated with...
in a single piece of amber in close association with a worker caste Mastotermes electrodominicus termite. It was suggested by Grimaldi and Engel that...
Bechly 2015 A manipulatorid cockroach Mastotermes monostichus Zhao et al. 2019 A termite, a species of Mastotermes. Meilia jinghanae Vršanský et Wang in...
Ectobiidae. Mastotermes monostichus Sp. nov Valid Zhao et al. Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Burmese amber Myanmar A species of Mastotermes. Pabuonqed Gen...
the family Cratovitismidae. Genus includes new species L. vegrandis. Mastotermes brasiliensis Sp. nov Valid Bezerra, Mendes & De Souza Late Eocene-early...
mastotermitid termite from Africa (Isoptera: Mastotermitidae): a new species of Mastotermes from the early Miocene of Ethiopia". Journal of Paleontology. 89 (6):...
Mastotermes nepropadyom Sp. nov Valid Vršanský & Aristov Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary Doronino Formation Russia A termite, a species of Mastotermes....
species is M. obscura. Mastotermes myanmarensis Sp. nov Jouault et al. Cretaceous Myanmar A termite, a species of Mastotermes. Mesoblattina libanensis...
Margulis L (February 2002). "Spirochete and protist symbionts of a termite (Mastotermes electrodominicus) in Miocene amber". Proceedings of the National Academy...
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