Tuesday 31 March 2015

Is There A New Monster,

living in Florida?


I should say the term monster is relative, but it could be true, in a new study published in PLOS One scientists found that two incredibly invasive species of termite, the Formosan subterranean termite and Asian subterranean termite, have started breeding, giving birth to a new race of super-strong, highly adaptable termites and guess what is to blame? you guessed it global warming, it happens like this, there are only three places in the world where both species have a foothold: Hawaii, Taiwan, and South Florida, but usually the ants' mating seasons does not overlap, in Florida, the Asian subterranean termite mates in February, months before the Formosan, but in both 2013 and 2014 researchers observed both species mating at the same time, producing large broods of hybrid termites, the researchers note in the paper that both years had warm winters in Florida, the thought is that if these two spices interbreed and there is no reason they should not as it appears it has already happened and the offspring can produce viable young a new super ant will take over, with a new devastating range, the hybrid offspring might have a temperature tolerance that stretches from North Carolina to Brazil, oh no! we have breed a super wood eating ant and it is all our fault, I keep getting flashbacks of a film called Them! but those monster ants were caused by nuclear testing, they did have global warming in those days.


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