Taxonomic Partition Suggests a High Degree of Coevolution Between Termites and Their Termitophiles

Abstract

Termites have a tight interaction with their social parasitic Corotocini beetles. This association is thought to be mainly host-specific, despite some host-switch events. By analyzing the taxonomic partition between species and genera of Corotocini, we propose the hypothesis that the main driver of the diversity of these termitophiles is coevolution.

Keywords

• Corotocini
• Evolution
• Biodiversity scaling
• Termitophily