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Michael Scharf and Xuguo Zhou correctly conclude that our recent review did not do justice to termites. This is regrettable, but explained by our stated focus on genes and social behaviour and the current emphasis of termite sociogenomics on caste development. For brevity, we even lumped termites with aphids, which resulted in ambiguity in the 'genes' in the sentence in question: the cited termite paper indeed highlights a single gene, as Scharf and Zhou assert, but 'genes' was meant to refer to both termite and aphid citations.

We agree that termite sociogenomics is on the rise, and thank Scharf and Zhou for alerting readers to the exciting developments that are taking place. We especially look forward to comparative sociogenomic analyses of ants and termites, because these organisms have evolved remarkably similar forms of social organization — highlighted by intricate caste systems and sophisticated agriculture — despite arising from distantly related insect orders.