Research on termites in urban areas: approaches and gaps

Abstract

Termites comprise a large group of organisms in urban areas, and this leads us to believe that there is a comprehensive literature on the subject, sufficient for conducting a systematic review of the last years. Consequently, the aim of this study was a descriptive analysis of publications that addressed the issue of termites in urban areas between the years 1945 and 2018. For the systematic review, a literature search was initiated using the ISI Web of Science (WoS), SCOPUS (Elsevier) and SCIELO databases. In total, 180 relevant studies in the field concerning urban termites were published, out of which most (58.33%) investigated about the invasive termites, followed by studies that addressed the issue of control of pest termites (28.33%) and ecology and biodiversity (13.33%). The most studied species on the invasive termites’ category was Coptotermes formosanus, which was present in 22.78% of the publications. Studies on urban termites that highlighted the importance of the control of pest termites in urban areas began in 1983. Most of them were focussed on tests with chemical products. The most tested chemical probe in different termite species was hexaflumuron. Coptotermes formosanus was the most tested, followed by Reticulitermes flavipes. The publication of studies that focus on the ecology and biodiversity of urban termites began after 1958; they compared the diversity of termites in other locations within urban areas and is distributed in a small number of papers. Some gaps in studies that may serve as suggestions for future studies and, consequently, bring new contributions and advances in the scientific knowledge of urban termites were identified and discussed.