RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS 1. Buczkowski, G. and Bertelsmeier, C., Invasive termites in a 21. Hochmair, H. H. and Scheffrahn, R. H., Spatial association of changing climate: a global perspective. Ecol. Evol., 2017, 7, 974– marine dockage with land-borne infestations of invasive termites 985. (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae: Coptotermes) in urban South Florida. 2. Roonwal, M. L. and Chhotani, O. B., Termite fauna of Assam J. Econ. Entomol., 2010, 103, 1338–1346. region, eastern India. Proc. Natl. Inst. Sci., India, 1962, 28B(4), 22. Scheffrahn, R. H. et al., Proliferation of the invasive termite Cop- 281–406. totermes gestroi (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) on Grand Cayman 3. Araujo, R. L., Termites of the neotropical region. In Biology of and overall termite diversity on the Cayman Islands. Fl. Entomol., Termites, Vol. If (eds Krishna, K. and Weesner, E. M.), Academic 2016, 99(3), 496–504; http://www.bioone.org/loi/flen Press, NY, 1970, pp. 527–571. 23. 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K., The taxonomic status of pest spe- of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India for cies of Coptotermes in Southeast Asia: resolving the paradox in funds under AICOPTAX (F. No. 22018-28/2019-CS (Tax). the pest status of the termites, Coptotermes gestroi, C. havilandi and C. travians (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae). Sociobiology, 2003, 42(1), 43–63. 7. Su, N.-Y., A case of mistaken identity: all the evidence pointed to Received 12 February 2021; revised accepted 11 May 2021 the Formosan subterranean termite, but closer inspection proved it wasn’t so. Pest Control, 1994, 62(10), 7980. doi: 10.18520/cs/v120/i11/1778-1781 8. Su, N.-Y. and Scheffrahn, R. H., Coptotermes vastator Light (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) in Guam. Proc. Hawaiian Entomolog- ical Soc., 1998, 33, 13–18. 9. Li, H. F., Fujisaki, I. and Su, N. Y., Predicting habitat suitability of Coptotermes gestroi (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) with species distribution models. J. Econ. Entomol., 2013, 106, 311–321. 10. Chouvenc, T. et al., Revisiting Coptotermes (Isoptera: Rhinoter- Laevicaulis haroldi (Veronicellidae: mitidae): a global taxonomic road map for species validity and distribution of an economically important subterranean termite Gastropoda), a potential future genus. Syst. Entomol., 2016, 41, 299–306. 11. Maiti, P. K., A taxonomic monograph on the world species of ter- invader to India mites of the family Rhinotermitidae (Isoptera: Insecta). Memoirs Zool. Surv. India, 2006, 20, 1–272. Biswa Bhusana Mahapatra1,2 and 12. Harit, A. K., Gajalakshmi, S. and Abbasi, S. A., Swarming of the 1,3, termite Coptotermes gestroi in north-eastern Puducherry. Zool. N. A. Aravind * Ecol., 2014, 24(1), 62–69. 1Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), 13. Rathore, N. S. and Bhattacharyya, A. K., Termite (Insecta: Isopte- Royal Enclave, Srirampura, Jakkur, Bengaluru 560 064, India ra) Fauna of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Present State of Knowledge. 2Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal 576 104, India Records of the Zoological Survey of India, Occasional Paper 223, 3Yenepoya Research Centre, Yenepoya (Deemed to be University), 2004, pp. 1–777. University Road, Derlakatte, Mangalore 575 018, India 14. Krishna, K., Grimaldi, D. A., Krishna, V. and Engel, M. S., Trea- tise on the Isoptera of the World: Vol. 3. Bull. Am. Museum Nat. Invasive alien species are considered one of the great- Hist., 2013, 377, 623–973. est threats to biodiversity, ecosystem services, economy 15. Hebert, P. D. N., Cywinska, A., Ball, S. L. and Dewaard, J. R., Biological identifications through DNA barcodes. Proc. Biol. Sci., and human health. Global climate change will only 2003, 270, 313–322. exacerbate the impact of several invasive species in 16. Sambrook, J. and Russell, D. W., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory the introduced range. Hence the control and manage- Manual, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York, 2001. ment of invasive species is crucial. Spatial tools such 17. Kirton, L. G. and Azmi, M., Patterns in the relative incidence of as GIS/RS and ecological niche models can help un- subterranean termite species infesting buildings in peninsular derstand the potential region where the species might Malaysia. Sociobiology, 2005, 46, 1–15. invade and predict invasive spread under different 18. Nagaraju, D. K. et al., First interception of two wood feeding climate change scenarios. This study explores if the potential invasive Coptotermes termite species in India. Int. J. Trop. newly introduced slug from South Africa, Laevicaulis Insect Sci., 2020; https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-020-00287-5 19. Jones, R., Silence, P. and Webster, M., Preserving History: Sub- haroldi (Purcell’s hunter slug or caterpillar slug) will terranean Termite Prevention in Colonial Williamsburg. Colonial become invasive in India under current as well as Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, USA, 2015; http:// future climate scenarios. Our result suggests that most museumpests.net/wpcontent/uploads/2015/03/Preserving-History- parts of western and Peninsular India are vulnerable Subterranean-Termite-Prevention-in-Colonial-Williamsburg1.pdf to the invasion, and suitable regions will only increase 20. Scheffrahn, R. H. and Crowe, W., Ship-borne termite (Isoptera) border interceptions in Australia and onboard infestations in Florida, 1986–2009. Fla Entomol., 2011, 94, 57–63. *For correspondence. (e-mail: [email protected]) CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 120, NO. 11, 10 JUNE 2021 1 RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS under both climate change scenarios. It calls for the certain parts of India16. It was first reported in 2015 from early detection and management of this potential Aurangabad, Paithan and Gangapur, Aurangabad district, invader to India. Maharashtra16. Later it was reported from several places in that State17. Since then, there have been more than 60 Keywords: Climate change scenarios, economic loss, records from all over India15,18. invasive alien species, Laevicaulis haroldi, niche model- Niche modelling was carried out for L. haroldi using ling. georeferenced data downloaded from India Biodiversity Portal and iNaturalist, and collated from the published INVASIVE alien species (IAS) are plants or animals that literature16–18. The 76 georeferenced occurrence points are introduced by humans outside of their natural geo- from both the native (68 records) and introduced ranges graphic range into an area where they are not naturally (eight records; see Supplementary Table 1) were used for present1. They are introduced accidentally or intentionally. species distribution modelling using MaxEnt (ver. IAS are introduced accidentally through trade, such as via 3.4.4)19. We downloaded environmental data for the cur- ships or transportation and intentionally through pet rent climatic scenario from Worldclim ver. 2 database trade, ornamental plants or for research. In a newly (www.worldclim.org) and for future climate change sce- invaded region, invasive species follow the stages from narios RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5 from the Intergovernmental introduction to establishment and dispersal to a large ar- Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)20. We extracted ea2. IAS are among the greatest threats to biodiversity, BioClim data for each occurrence point and tested for ecosystem services, human health and economy, after collinearity. We excluded all layers with a correlation of habitat destruction3. Globally, IAS cause economic loss |>0.70|. Finally, only five variables, namely Bio 1, Bio 4, to the tune of $120 billion per year in USA and around Bio 12, Bio 14 and Bio 19 were used for niche modelling €20 billion in Europe4,5. A number of studies have (see Supplementary Table 2). We used the default feature reported that IAS are responsible for the extinction of in MaxEnt ver. 3.4.4 to run the model and project two native and endemic species1. future climate scenarios (details of the method used are Since introduced species usually occur at low densities, provided in the Supplementary Information). We calcu- early detection is difficult6–8. Predicting which species lated the true skill statistic (TSS) to assess model accu- will become invasive in a particular area is also a chal- racy21. Binary maps were developed using 10 percentile lenging task9. However, with the advent of spatial tools training threshold to assess the changes in the area bet- such as geographical information system and remote ween future and current scenarios. Climatic niche overlap sensing (GIS/RS) and ecological niche modelling (ENM) was computed to assess if there is a potential niche shift or species distribution modelling (SDM), one can predict between native and introduced ranges using the Hum- the distribution of species purely based on the environ- boldt package in R (ref. 22). mental variables and transfer the model to a new region The niche modelling results suggest that the model per- or time (spatial and temporal)10. ENM is used widely in formance is very good (TSS: 0.926 and AUC: 0.982). various applications ranging from taxonomy to conserva- Currently, L. haroldi is reported from Karnataka, Maha- tion biology to biogeography10. These models are valua- rashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan ble tools in predicting the potential spread of invasive and West Bengal (Figure 1 a), distributed within an alti- species, both spatially and temporally11.