Advances in the Evolutionary Ecology of Termites, Volume III

This Research Topic is the third volume of 'Advances in the Evolutionary Ecology of Termites'. The first and second volumes can be found here and here.

Termites are eusocial insects living in colonies ranging from hundreds to millions of individuals, organized into reproductive and non-reproductive castes. These castes are specialized for various tasks such as reproduction, nest construction, foraging, brood care, and colony defense. Termites are eusocial cockroaches, which have gained increasing attention in evolutionary studies aimed at understanding the transition to eusociality from subsocial wood roaches.

Termites play a vital role in ecosystem functioning, particularly through litter decomposition, soil formation, and nutrient cycling. This is largely due to their symbiotic association with microorganisms, which enables the breakdown of lignocellulose from plant material. The increasing interest in termite research highlights the need for a collection dedicated to these remarkable insects.

The first and second volumes of this Research Topic attracted significant attention from researchers worldwide, with 19 high-quality articles published and over 77,000 views to date, a number that continues to grow. This third volume aims to unite advances in termite evolutionary ecology, covering diverse research areas such as evolutionary biology, genetics, genomics and transcriptomics, systematics, microbiology, ethology and ecology.
We invite contributions from a wide range of scientists, including termitologists, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, microbiologists, and geneticists. Studies at all levels of organization, from colonies to ecosystems, are welcome.

We expect that contributions will focus on the following (but not limited to) themes:

• Evolution of eusociality in termites
• Microbe interactions in termites of different feeding guilds
• Effects of climate change and environmental alterations on the ecosystem functions provided by termites
• The structure and function of exocrine glands and their role in termite evolution
• Impacts of habitat degradation on termite communities
• Interactions between termitophiles and inquilines
• Impacts of termite activity on soil formation and properties
• Impacts of termites on agroecosystem services
• The ecology and behavior of invasive and native termite species
• Termite communication (chemical, vibrational, etc)

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: eusociality, isopterans, Blattodea, castes, nest, task allocation, ecosystem engineers

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.