Scientists from Germany, the United States and Colombia, discovered the new termite species and has been officially named as Proneotermes macondianus. This newly discovered remained undiscovered over the past 100 years.
Termitologists Robin Casalla, Freiburg University, Germany, and Universidad del Norte, Colombia, Dr.Rudolf H. Scheffrahn, University of Florida, USA, and Prof Dr. Judith Korb, Freiburg University, discovered a termite species and described it as new based on its unique shapes and colors, as well as its genes. The new termite is published in the open access journal ZooKeys.
According to Nature World News, the newly discovered species is is the third species of the termite genus Proneotermes. The researchers classified the termites living in the dry forests of Colombia as a new species based on its unique shape and color.
The given name of the new termite species is named after the fictional town Macondo from the Novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Nobel Prize laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Macondo stands for a forgotten microcosm in the history of Colombia with unimaginable events. According to the story, the magical realm was eventually wiped off the map by gigantic storms of the Caribbean as a form of divine punishment for the violation of the biblical laws of genetics, incest.
P. macondianus may have been one of those characters playing in the novel during the destruction of Macondo, remaining unrecognized until today," comments lead author Robin Casalla.
The soldiers of this species are characterized by their elongated, rectangular heads, about 5 7 mm long. Their colors range from color from black at the tip of their heads to ferruginous orange at their back. P. macondianus has a voracious appetite for drywood, especially thin branches of less than 2 cm in diameter, and lives in small colonies of about 20 individuals.
Based on its characteristics, the termitologist added the new termite species under Drywood. Although few drywood termites are considered pests in some urban areas, P. macondianus lives only in the wild and prefers tropical dry forests.
