Fig. 3

Records of frequent occurrences of thelytokous parthenogenesis in natural populations of termites, mapped on a schematic and simplified phylogenetic tree (a), including a detailed view on phylogenetic relationships within the Termes group, studied here (b). These trees are compiled from phylogenetic reconstructions using full mitochondrial genomes [21, 41,42,43]. Current knowledge suggests that AQS evolved at least six times independently —three times in the genus Reticulitermes, twice in the Syntermitinae and at least once in the Termes group. The independent evolution of thelytokous parthenogenesis (TP) in major clades is supported by different modalities of automixis: central fusion (CF), terminal fusion (TF) and gamete duplication (GD). Recently, the complete loss of males was reported in some populations of the Kalotermitidae Glyptotermes nakajimai, in which the mode of thelytoky, either automixis or apomixis, remains to be firmly demonstrated [44]