Research Article |
Corresponding author: Rudolf H. Scheffrahn ( rhsc@ufl.edu ) Academic editor: Eliana Cancello
© 2020 Rudolf H. Scheffrahn, Tiago F. Carrijo.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Scheffrahn RH, Carrijo TF (2020) Three new species of Rugitermes (Isoptera, Kalotermitidae) from Peru and Bolivia. ZooKeys 1000: 31-44. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1000.59219
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The soldier of Rugitermes aridus sp. nov. is described from a xeric, termite-depauperate region of central Peru. Rugitermes rufus sp. nov. and R. volcanensis sp. nov. are described from soldiers and dealated imagos collected in a mesic forest of Amboró National Park in western Bolivia. The imago of R. rufus is unique among all described Rugitermes species in that the head capsule is reddish orange and the pronotum is brown. The imago head and pronotum are both brown in R. volcanensis. A phylogenetic and GMYC barcode analyses were performed with the COI gene. These analyses confirmed the three new species and revealed a high undescribed diversity of Rugitermes in the New World.
Amboró National Park, barcode, coloration, GMYC analysis, Huánuco, imago, soldier
Rugitermes Holmgren, 1911 now consists of 14 extant species (
Herein we describe the soldier caste of R. aridus from Peru and the dealated imago and soldier castes of Rugitermes rufus and R. volcanensis from Bolivia (Fig.
Photographs of soldiers and imagos were taken as multi-layer montages using a Leica M205C stereomicroscope controlled by Leica Application Suite v. 3 software. Preserved specimens were taken from 85% ethanol and suspended in a pool of Purell Hand Sanitizer to position the specimens on a transparent plastic Petri dish as background. All soldiers and imago specimens listed in “material examined” sections were used for measurements (Table
DNA extraction, PCR, and the sequencing of 43 Rugitermes specimens were performed at the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding (BOLD) following standard high-throughput protocols (
All sequences were aligned using the MUSCLE algorithm in Geneious v. 9.1.8 (Biomatters Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand). A phylogenetic analysis was conducted under Bayesian inference (BI) with BEAST v. 1.8.0 (
To infer the number of Rugitermes species in our COI tree, a maximum likelihood version of the Generalized Mixed Yule Coalescent model (GMYC) was used. The GMYC tests whether the diversification history is better explained under a population coalescent model or under a speciation model (e.g.,
1 | Maximum soldier head width (mean) ca 2 mm; imago head capsule, pronotum, and distal antennal articles black | R. laticollis Snyder |
– | Maximum soldier head width (mean) <1.7 mm | 2 |
2 | Imago head black, pronotum yellowish orange (Fig. |
R. magninotus Emerson |
– | Imago unknown or imago pronotum brown | 3 |
3 | Imago unknown; soldier head capsule width at antenna narrower than span of antennal carinae; soldier antennal carinae and anterolateral ridges smoothly rounded and appear polished (Fig. |
R. aridus sp. nov. |
– | Soldier head width at antennal carinae equal to span of antennal carinae; soldier antennal carinae and anterolateral ridges angular and rugose (Figs |
4 |
4 | Imago head capsule reddish orange (Figs |
R. rufus sp. nov. |
– | Imago head capsule brown (Figs |
R. volcanensis sp. nov. |
The R. aridus soldier is much smaller than that of R. laticollis.
The antennal carinae and anterolateral ridges of the R. aridus soldier are smoothly rounded, modestly sclerotized, and appear polished; while these structures in R. rufus and R. volcanensis are more angular, darkly sclerotized, and rugose. In R. aridus, the soldier head capsule width at the antenna is narrower than span of antennal carinae while in in R. rufus and R. volcanensis this span is equal to the width of the head capsule. Also, in R. aridus, the outside corners of the anterolateral ridges are not elevated above the plane of the frons as they are in R. rufus and R. volcanensis.
Peru, Huánuco, 10 km NE Huánuco city (Fig.
Holotype soldier: Peru, Huánuco, 10 km NE Huánuco city (-9.877, -76.1641), elev. 2127 m, 1 Jun. 2014, R. Scheffrahn et al. (R. Scheffrahn, T. Carrijo, J. Chase, J. Křeček, E. Kuswanto, J. Mangold, A. Mullins, and T. Nishimura), University of Florida Termite Collection (UFTC), Davie Florida, no. PU991. Paratypes. One additional soldier, pseudergates, same colony sample as holotype. Two additional colonies from type locality (same data), one soldier and pseudergates (PU990) and two soldiers and pseudergates (PU992). Five colonies: Peru, Huánuco, 7 km NE Huánuco city (-9.8816, -76.1913), elev. 1926 m, 1 Jun. 2014, R. Scheffrahn et al., University of Florida Termite Collection nos. PU997, PU998, PU999, PU1000, and PU1001, each containing two soldiers and pseudergates.
Character | R. aridus | R. aridus | R. rufus | R. rufus | R. volcanensis | R. volcanensis |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Range | Mean | Range | Mean | Range | Mean | |
Head length to lateral mandible base | 2.13–2.69 | 2.39 | 1.72–2.72 | 2.33 | 2.32–2.88 | 2.62 |
Head width, maximum | 1.44–1.72 | 1.6 | 1.16–1.56 | 1.42 | 1.24–1.88 | 1.54 |
Head height with gula, max. | 1.15–1.45 | 1.33 | 0.90–1.32 | 1.18 | 1.12–1.38 | 1.26 |
Pronotum length | 0.98–1.25 | 1.13 | 0.64–1.05 | 0.91 | 1.00–1.25 | 1.08 |
Pronotum width | 1.60–2.03 | 1.76 | 1.10–2.10 | 1.56 | 1.50–1.90 | 1.63 |
No. antennal articles | 11–16 | 13.7 | 12–13 | 12.43 | 10–16 | 14 |
3rd antennal article length | 0.18–0.25 | 0.21 | 0.14–0.22 | 0.18 | 0.16–0.25 | 0.19 |
n | 15 | 14 | 8 | |||
No. colonies | 8 | 4 | 4 |
Imago (unknown).
Soldier
(Fig.
(Fig.
The coloration and size of the R. rufus imago easily distinguish it from all other species of Rugitermes. Rugitermes rufus is the only Rugitermes imago with a reddish-orange head capsule and dark brown coloration of the pronotum and remainder of the body. Rugitermes costaricensis (Snyder, 1929) and R. unicolor Snyder, 1952 imagos each have a yellow-brown head and yellow pronotum (with less contrast between coloration of head and pronotum in R. unicolor). In all other Rugitermes, the imago head is black and the pronotum is yellow [R. bicolor (Emerson, 1926), R. flavicinctus (Emerson, 1925), R. magninotus (Fig.
Bolivia, Amboró National Park, Refugio Los Volcanes, Santa Cruz District (Fig.
Holotype. One female delate imago: Bolivia, Amboró National Park, hillside above Refugio Los Volcanes, Santa Cruz District (-18.119680, -63.608810) elev. 1402 m, 2 Jun. 2014, R. Scheffrahn et al., UFTC no. B01021. Paratypes. Three soldiers, pseudergates, same colony sample as holotype. Five soldiers, pseudergates, Bolivia, Amboró National Park, forest surrounding Refugio Los Volcanes, Santa Cruz District (-18.1004, -63.5934) elev. 1374 m, 3 Jun. 2014, R. Scheffrahn et al., UFTC no. BO1055. Four colonies, same locality as BO1055: three soldiers, pseudergates (BO1061), four soldiers, pseudergates (BO1062), two male dealate imagos, pseudergates (BO1070).
Dealated imago
(Figs
Character | R. rufus | R. rufus | R. volcanensis |
---|---|---|---|
Range | Mean | ||
Head width, maximum (w/eyes) | 1.19–1.26 | 1.23 | 1.21 |
Pronotum width, max. | 1.21–1.29 | 1.24 | 1.27 |
Eye diam. ocellus, max. | 0.08–0.10 | 0.09 | 0.07 |
Eye diam. compound, max. | 0.27–0.30 | 0.28 | 0.27 |
Body length | 6.00–6.90 | 6.33 | 7.2 |
Right forewing length | |||
Body length with wings | |||
No. antennal articles, max. | 9 (broken) | 10 (broken) | |
n | 3 | 1 | |
No. colonies | 2 | 1 |
Soldier
(Figs
(Fig.
The species name “rufus” describes the unique reddish-orange coloration of the imago head.
See the diagnoses of R. aridus and R. rufus above.
Bolivia, Amboró National Park, Refugio Los Volcanes, Santa Cruz District (Fig.
Holotype. One male delate imago (with pseudergates): Bolivia, Amboró National Park, forest surrounding Refugio Los Volcanes, Santa Cruz District (-18.119680, -63.608810) elev. 1402 m, 2 Jun. 2014, R. Scheffrahn et al., UFTC no. B01069. Paratypes. Bolivia, Amboró National Park, hillside above Refugio Los Volcanes, Santa Cruz District (-18.119680, -63.608810) elev. 1402 m, 2 Jun. 2014, R. Scheffrahn et al., B01022. Two colonies, same locality as BO1069: five soldiers, pseudergates (BO1117), one soldier, pseudergates (BO1118).
Dealated imago
(Fig.
Soldier
(Fig.
(Fig.
The species name “volcanensis” refers to the scenic type locality of Refugio Los Volcanes.
Our phylogenetic analysis recovered the new species R. rufus as sister group of all other Rugitermes. The new species R. volcanensis was clustered with R. bicolor, R. rugosus, and two undescribed species from Peru and Paraguay. Rugitermes aridus sp. nov. is more related to an undescribed species from Peru. Our analysis also recovered a clade of five undescribed species from northern South America and Central America (Fig.
In total, 17 entities were recognized as species according to the GMYC barcode analysis (different colors in Fig.
Most Rugitermes soldiers are difficult to distinguish from each other, but the anterolateral ridges of the frons are helpful (
Rugitermes aridus occurs in the rain-shadowed upper Huallaga river valley of Peru (Fig.
The DNA barcode analysis shows a high undescribed diversity of Rugitermes in the New World. As well as many other kalotermitids, this group still need extensive taxonomic work. Different from most other termite genera, in which soldiers are the most important caste for taxonomic purposes, Rugitermes identification and diagnosis are much more reliable using the imago caste. Since this caste is absent in many samples, this is yet another challenge for the taxonomy of the group.
Many thanks to Dr John Warner, University of Florida, for taking morphological measurements.