Reticulitermes speratus (Kolbe) is economically important pest in East Asia including Korea, Japan and China where they infest wooden structures in urban areas. In this study, we report the first record of R. speratus speratus from Korea, which was verified using soldier morphology and molecular characteristics obtained from a mitochondrial gene. R. speratus speratus Kolbe, 1885 (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae) are found in several provinces, mainly southern regions in Korea, whereas R. speratus kyushuensis are distributed throughout the country. Our morphological comparison showed that R. speratus speratus can be distinguishable from R. speratus kyushuensis by the ratio of the posterior postmentum width to length. In the molecular comparison, R. speratus speratus revealed genetic differences of 3.06% (range 2.60–4.10%) from R. speratus kyushuensis using cytochrome oxidase subunit II gene sequences.

Understanding molting process in subterranean termites is a critical step to implement successful control program as chitin synthesis inhibitor baits interfere molting process of termites. In the present study, we report detailed molting process in Reticulitermes speratus kyushuensis Morimoto, 1968 that foraging workers start fasting period 5 days after they were collected and finished their entire molting process for the next 5 to 6 days. Ecdysis took less than an hour, specifically 9.2 ± 4.9 minutes from jack-knife posture to separation of the antenna and 36.6 ± 8.5 minutes from separation of the antenna to regain mobility. We believed relatively short time window of molting process in R. speratus kyushuensis may affect lengthy colony elimination time.

Investigating loci compositions by conventional methods is limited in fully addressing complex gene information. We applied self-organizing map (SOM) to characterize Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) of aquatic insects in six streams in Japan in responding to environmental variables. Locus band presence patterns were clustered by the trained SOM. Presence and absence data of loci were altered and cluster change through recognition was Subsequently expressed to indicate sensitivity to environmental variables. The outlier loci were determined based on the 90th percentile. Subsequently environmental responsiveness was obtained for each outlier in different species. Outlier loci were overall sensitive to pollutants and feeding material. Poly-loci like responsiveness was detected in adapting to environmental constraints. SOM training combined with recognition could be an efficient means of characterizing loci information without knowledge on population genetics a prior.