Scientists found a 38-million-year-old pair of termites in Baltic amber in Kaliningrad. The research was published in the journal PNAS.
“Termite fossils are very common, but this specimen is unique because it contains a pair of insects. Dr., an expert in entomology and biology at the Czech Academy of Sciences. “I’ve seen hundreds of fossils with termites in them, but I’ve never seen a couple,” Ales Bucek said.
Male and female insects belong to this species. Elektrotermes affinis. Millions of years ago, its representatives met on the then warm shores of the Baltic Sea. Ancient amber was mined in Kaliningrad and later sold to the Czech Republic. An international group of scientists, including Japanese biologists, analyzed this.
The insects lay side by side in the amber, with the female’s mouthparts touching the tip of the male’s abdomen. This stance (tandem running) is characteristic of modern termites. So, the male and female run around to find a suitable nesting site and exchange pheromones at the same time.
However, tandem running insects usually run one after the other rather than side by side. As an experiment with live termites and resin showed, trapped insects could change position as the amber hardened.
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