Chouvenc T. et al.
Thermal are concentrated next to ports, which can lead to their infiltration in boats
“It’s just a matter of time,” the investigators assure. Termination species are merging, become more resistant and can even infiltrate boats.
Two species of insects that row wood, worldwide invaders, are crossing in Florida, USA-is more worrying than it seems. The phenomenon has been going on since the late 1990s, but a team of researchers realized that soon the problem can spread around the world.
In 2010, theThermal were responsible for about $ 40 billion (35 billion euros) of losses worldwide, and about 80% of these costs came from underground termites as a Coptotermes.
“Wherever the two coexist species, It’s just a matter of time until they have the opportunity to hybridize and establish hybrid populations, ”he tells Thomas Chounc, one of the authors of May in May Proceedings of the Royal Society.
“Viable hybrids of these two species would probably lead to a superinvasive thermal that could potentially have a huge area of distribution worldwide and could cause important damage,” says Edouard Duquesne, a researcher at Brussels Free University. Is “alarming“.
Researchers also found that first -generation hybrid females can mate and form colonies with males of any of the parental species.
If genes can flow between species, the result can be an equally destructive and more resistant to the factors such as temperature, the researchers warn.
And there is still a weight factor: these living beings exist in abundance near ports, so they can easily infiltrate and leave anywhere in the world.
“Humans allowed these thermal to spread because we were not paying attention,” says Chounc. “Now we are paying the price for it.”
