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Hypothesized late Pleistocene termite dispersal routes from Florida, Cuba, and Hispaniola to the BATC based on present-day distributions. Not included are nonindigenous species ( Cr. brevis , Co. gestroi , and He. sp.), BATC endemics ( Cr . bracketti , A. bahamensis , and A . inopinatus ), and species with broader distributions in the West Indies for which an origin is indiscernible including I. bequaerti (to Puerto Rico), I . milleri (to Cayman Islands and Jamaica), I . schwarzi (to Jamaica), and Ne. castaneus (to Cayman Is., Jamaica, and mainland Central America). R . f ., R. flavipes , I . sn ., I . snyderi ; T . h ., Termes hispaniolae ; Prorh . s ., Pror. simplex ; C . ca ., Cr . cavifrons ; C . cy ., Cr . cymatofrons ; Ne . j ., Neotermes jouteli ; Ne . l ., Ne . luykxi ; I . r ., I . rhyzophorae ; Pr . h , Procryptotermes hesperus ; H . c ., H . cardini ; Na . r ., Nasutitermes rippertii ; Pa . b ., Parvitermes brooksi ; Na . c ., Na . corniger ; I . i ., I . incisus ; Ne . m ., Ne . mona ; and Pr . c ., Pro . corniceps .
Source publication
Termite surveys of 33 islands of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos (BATC) archipelago yielded 3,533 colony samples from 593 sites. Twenty-seven species from three families and 12 genera were recorded as follows: Cryptotermes brevis (Walker), Cr. cavifrons Banks, Cr. cymatofrons Scheffrahn and Křeček, Cr. bracketti n. sp., Incisitermes bequaerti (Sny...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... Like A. bahamensis, A. inopinatus is primarily conÞned to the islands in the Great Bahama Bank, but both spp. were not collected on the Bimini islands and on New Providence. A. inopinatus was not collected on Cat Island. Among islands isolated by deep water (Table 1; Fig. 5), A. inopinatus occurs only on San Salvador, whereas A. bahamensis was collected only on Rum Cay. See also A. ...
Context 2
... are an exception with respect to the remainder of the West Indies where soil-nesting ter- mites occur only on the large islands of Cuba, His- paniola, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and their respective shallow water islands. Based on distributions of indigenous termite spe- cies, the BATC archipelago can be divided into four faunal zones (Table 1; Fig. 5): Little Bahama Bank (Grand Bahama and Abaco), Great Bahama Bank (Bi- mini to Long), southeastern islands in deep water (Rum Cay and San Salvador to Great Inagua), and the Caicos Bank. Mayaguana seems to be transitional be- tween the latter two zones. Termite dispersal routes from centers of diversity in Florida, Cuba, and His- paniola ...
Context 3
... Bank (Bi- mini to Long), southeastern islands in deep water (Rum Cay and San Salvador to Great Inagua), and the Caicos Bank. Mayaguana seems to be transitional be- tween the latter two zones. Termite dispersal routes from centers of diversity in Florida, Cuba, and His- paniola to the BATC also can be established based on current distributions (Fig. 5). Not included in dis- persal route estimates (Fig. 5) are nonindigenous spe- cies (Na. corniger in Florida and Abaco, Cr. brevis, Co. gestroi, and H. sp.), BATC endemics (Cr. bracketti, A. bahamensis, and A. inopinatus), and indigenous spe- cies with a broader distribution in the West Indies for which an origin is indiscernible ...
Context 4
... water (Rum Cay and San Salvador to Great Inagua), and the Caicos Bank. Mayaguana seems to be transitional be- tween the latter two zones. Termite dispersal routes from centers of diversity in Florida, Cuba, and His- paniola to the BATC also can be established based on current distributions (Fig. 5). Not included in dis- persal route estimates (Fig. 5) are nonindigenous spe- cies (Na. corniger in Florida and Abaco, Cr. brevis, Co. gestroi, and H. sp.), BATC endemics (Cr. bracketti, A. bahamensis, and A. inopinatus), and indigenous spe- cies with a broader distribution in the West Indies for which an origin is indiscernible including I. bequaerti (to Puerto Rico), I. milleri (to ...
Similar publications
A taxonomic revision of the genus Cryptotermes occurring in the West Indies is given based on recent collections from the Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles, and the Bahamas. Seventeen indigenous and four nonindigenous species are described from external morphology of the soldier. The imago caste is also described for all but one species. The indige...
Citations
... The genus Cryptotermes is the most speciose kalotermitid genus in the New World and one of the most speciose kalotermitid genera worldwide (Scheffrahn 2018). It was revised by Bacchus (1987), complemented by the descriptions of Scheffrahn & Křeček (1999), and later by Scheffrahn et al. (2006). The fossil record of the genus is scarce with only three species known to date, viz. ...
Anewfossil kalotermitid species of the genus Cryptotermes is described and illustrated as Cryptotermes pouilloni n. sp. from the Miocene Dominican amber (Dominican Republic). This new species can be differentiated from the other Cryptotermes species, inter alia, by its small size (one of the smallest Cryptotermes species), anterior margin of anteclypeus concave, 15 antennomeres, and forewing RP with five secondary branches reaching wing anterior margin and M joining RP after wing midlength. The new species originates from La Toca mines while the exact origins of the other Dominican fossil Cryptotermes species are unknown. We summarize the Isoptera diversity from Dominican amber and rapidly discuss the impact of inaccurate dating of the Dominican amber on the time divergence estimate of the isopteran constitutive families.
... By contrast, soil-feeders and fungus-growers did not recolonize the Krakatau islands despite their abundance on the neighbouring islands of Java and Sumatra, neither did they colonize most oceanic islands (e.g. [32,33]). Termite species feeding on wood are therefore better dispersers than those feeding on soil. ...
Termites feed on vegetal matter at various stages of decomposition. Lineages of wood- and soil-feeding termites are distributed across terrestrial ecosystems located between 45°N and 45°S of latitude, a distribution they acquired through many transoceanic dispersal events. While wood-feeding termites often live in the wood on which they feed and are efficient at dispersing across oceans by rafting, soil-feeders are believed to be poor dispersers. Therefore, their distribution across multiple continents requires an explanation. Here, we reconstructed the historical biogeography and the ancestral diet of termites using mitochondrial genomes and δ13C and δ15N stable isotope measurements obtained from 324 termite samples collected in five biogeographic realms. Our biogeographic models showed that wood-feeders are better at dispersing across oceans than soil-feeders, further corroborated by the presence of wood-feeders on remote islands devoid of soil-feeders. However, our ancestral range reconstructions identified 33 dispersal events among biogeographic realms, 18 of which were performed by soil-feeders. Therefore, despite their lower dispersal ability, soil-feeders performed several transoceanic dispersals that shaped the distribution of modern termites.
... Heterotermes and Reticulitermes are geographically and topographically allopatric (Haverty & Nutting, 1976;Scheffrahn et al., 2006). These two genera were traditionally placed in the subfamily Heterotermitinae Froggatt; however, in all recent phylogenies using molecular data, the genus Coptotermes supports the subfamily Heterotermitinae as paraphyletic, with Coptotermes as the sister group of Heterotermes, and Reticulitermes as sister group to Coptotermes + Heterotermes Lo et al., 2004;Inward et al., 2007;Legendre et al., 2008;Ware et al., 2010;Cameron et al., 2012;Bourguignon et al., 2015Bourguignon et al., , 2016. ...
Heterotermes Froggatt is a subterranean termite genus consisting of 30 living described species worldwide, with nine occurring in the New World. Herein we provide a molecular phylogeny, using both mitochondrial and nuclear markers, of all New World species of Heterotermes , including biogeographical analysis, and describe a new species from Paraguay and Bolivia, based on morphological and molecular evidence. Our analysis recovered the New World species as paraphyletic to a monophyletic Australian clade. Within this New World + Australian clade, two monophyletic major groups were formed c . 28 Ma: the aureus ‐ and tenuis ‐groups. The aureus ‐group has a disjunct and broad distribution consisting of two clades. The first clade extends into the Nearctic region and a second is composed of a branch in the Caatinga and Cerrado biomes (H. sulcatus Mathews) and a branch in the Chacoan biome (a new species, Heterotermes lauralinearum Carrijo sp.n. ). The tenuis ‐group is composed of four broadly distributed Neotropical species and the Australian clade. A single dispersion event from South America to Australia probably occurred between 13 and 24 Ma. Heterotermes crinitus Emerson was the first to diverge, being sister group of all other species in the tenuis ‐group, followed by Heterotermes assu Constantino. An analysis of the historical biogeography of Heterotermes suggests that jump dispersal was the most important cladogenetic process for the genus. This study is the most comprehensive phylogeny of Heterotermes and contributes to the understanding of termite evolution and geographic distribution in the New World, complementing recent studies focused on worldwide patterns.
This published work has been registered on Zoobank, http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:8951A29B‐8B69‐4CD5‐B9DF‐2C70D4628D97.
... 25). Scheffrahn et al. (2006: fig. 3E) provided a photograph of T. hispaniolae from the Bahamas. ...
... Yellow star: type locality designated by Harris (1960) for T. melindae (junior synonym of T. hispaniolae). of 1.09-1.16 mm (Emerson 1926), 1.08 (Mathews 1977), 1.08 (Constantino 2002), and 1.08 (Scheffrahn et al. 2006). Silvestri (1903) reported the maximum head width of Termes riograndensis Jhering 1887 at 1.1 mm. ...
... His drawings and measurements (maximum head width 1.02-1.04 mm) of the T. melindae soldier fit well within the intraspecific variability of this species (Emer son 1926;Mathews 1977;Constantino 1991;Scheffrahn et al. 2006). Material in the UF collection from the T. melindae type locality also match T. hispaniolae based on the soldier and the worker EVA morphology, thus rel egating T. melindae to junior synonym status of T. hispaniolae as proposed by Emerson (Krishna et al. 2013b). ...
The genus Termes Linnaeus, 1758 occurs in the Neotropical, Ethiopian, and Oriental regions and is notable for the long, narrow, and nearly symmetrical mandibles of the soldier caste. I report the presence of T. hispaniolae (Banks, 1918) in Bolivia and provide many additional new geographic records throughout the Caribbean Basin. Termes hispaniolae is common in much of its range, and workers are characterized by a diagnostic enteric valve armature that is described here for the first time.
... 3bc, enteric valve; fig. 6b, digestive tube); Scheffrahn et al. (2006;A. bahamensis: fig. ...
This contribution deals with the worker caste of the Neotropical termite fauna. It is a compilation of present knowledge about the morphology of pseudergates and workers, including the literature discussing the origin and evolution of this caste, the terminology used in the different taxonomic groups, and the techniques used to study these individuals, especially examination of the gut, mandibles, legs, and nota. In order to assist in identifying workers, it includes a key for the families that occur in the Neotropical Region and a characterization of workers of all families, especially the subfamilies of Termitidae, with descriptions and illustrations of diagnostic morphological features of genera. We point out advances and gaps in knowledge, as well as directions for future research.
... After the world revision by Bacchus (1987), the West Indian group was revised by Scheffrahn & Křeček (1999), adding 12 new species. Another new West Indian species, C. bracketti Scheffrahn & Křeček, was added by Scheffrahn et al. (2006). The latest mainland endemic Cryptotermes to be described include C. abruptus Scheffrahn & Křeček from Mexico ) and C. colombianus Casalla, Scheffrahn & Korb from Colombia (Casalla et al. 2016). ...
Cryptotermes garifunae sp. nov. (Isoptera: Kalotermitidae) is described from a single colony sample collected on the coast of Honduras. This species represents the twenty-second Cryptotermes species known from the Caribbean Basin and West Indies. The C. garifunae soldier and imago are the smallest of the New World Cryptotermes. Distribution maps, constructed from 1,452 new records, are given for all 31 species of New World Cryptotermes.
... Importantly, dry-wood nesters can easily disperse over water through wood-rafting. This is evidenced by the presence of many species, including G. nakajimai, in coastal areas and on remote islands [20,21,43,44]. According to the Red Queen hypothesis, sexual reproduction is favored because it helps the population to co-evolve with specialist parasites and pathogens [45]. ...
Background:
Sexual reproduction is the norm in almost all animal species, and in many advanced animal societies, both males and females participate in social activities. To date, the complete loss of males from advanced social animal lineages has been reported only in ants and honey bees (Hymenoptera), whose workers are always female and whose males display no helping behaviors even in normal sexual species. Asexuality has not previously been observed in colonies of another major group of social insects, the termites, where the ubiquitous presence of both male and female workers and soldiers indicate that males play a critical role beyond that of reproduction.
Results:
Here, we report asexual societies in a lineage of the termite Glyptotermes nakajimai. We investigated the composition of mature colonies from ten distinct populations in Japan, finding six asexual populations characterized by a lack of any males in the reproductive, soldier, and worker castes of their colonies, an absence of sperm in the spermathecae of their queens, and the development of unfertilized eggs at a level comparable to that for the development of fertilized eggs in sexual populations of this species. Phylogenetic analyses indicated a single evolutionary origin of the asexual populations, with divergence from sampled sexual populations occurring about 14 million years ago. Asexual colonies differ from sexual colonies in having a more uniform head size in their all-female soldier caste, and fewer soldiers in proportion to other individuals, suggesting increased defensive efficiencies arising from uniform soldier morphology. Such efficiencies may have contributed to the persistence and spread of the asexual lineage. Cooperative colony foundation by multiple queens, the single-site nesting life history common to both the asexual and sexual lineages, and the occasional development of eggs without fertilization even in the sexual lineage are traits likely to have been present in the ancestors of the asexual lineage that may have facilitated the transition to asexuality.
Conclusions:
Our findings demonstrate that completely asexual social lineages can evolve from mixed-sex termite societies, providing evidence that males are dispensable for the maintenance of advanced animal societies in which they previously played an active social role.
... From 1990 to 2014, we conducted termite survey expeditions in the New World with the goal of collecting as much diversity ("species richness") over the largest area and most varied habitats and microhabitats as time and cost permitted (e.g., Scheffrahn et al., 2003Scheffrahn et al., , 2005Scheffrahn et al., , 2006. Our "expert" surveys and those in Taiwan by Li, H. F, et al. (2011Li, H. F, et al. ( , 2015 also yielded higher proportions (2.6-61.5%) of kalotermitid colony occurrences (unique encounters) than those of transect studies from comparable habitats. ...
The termite family Kalotermitidae constitutes a wood-nesting termite family that accounts for about 15% of all extant termite species. In recent decades, field studies have been carried out to assess termite diversity in various wooded habitats and geographic locations. Three sampling methods have been favored expert, transect, and alate light-trap surveys. Expert collecting is not spatially quantifiable but relies on field personnel to recognize and sample termite niches. The transect method aims to standardize and quantify termite abundance and diversity. Light trapping is a passive method for sampling nocturnal alate flights. We compared our expert survey results and results of published sampling methods for their proportional yields of kalotermitid versus non-kalotermitid encounters. Using an odds ratio statistic, we found that worldwide, there is about a 50.6-fold greater likelihood of encountering a kalotermitid sample versus a non-kalotermitid using the expert survey method and a 15.3-fold greater likelihood using alate trapping than using the transect method. There is about a 3.3 -fold greater likelihood of collecting a kalotermitid specimen versus a non-kalotermitid sample using the expert survey method than using the alate trap method. Transect studies in which only termite species diversity was reported gave similar low Kalotermitidae yields. We propose that multiple biases in sampling methodology include tools, time constraints, habitat type, geographical location, topographical conditions, and human traits account for the divergent outcomes in sampling the abundance and diversity of Kalotermitidae compared to other termite families.
... Color images were prepared following the methods of Scheffrahn et al. 2006. Scanning electron micrographs were taken with a Hitachi 4700 FESEM microscope at 3-5 kV. ...
Procryptotermes Holmgren is a modestly diverse kalotermitid genus endemic to numerous islands and archipelagos of the world’s tropical oceans (Scheffrahn & Křeček 2001). Mainland records from southern India (Bose 1979, Roonwal & Chhotani 1963, Thakur 1975), Queensland Australia (Watson and Abbey 1993), and the Yucatan Peninsula (Scheffrahn and Křeček 2001), also approximate oceanic coastlines. The soldier of Procryptotermes is distinguished from most other kalotermitids by long, sickle-shaped mandibles and a rather weak or absent frontal flange or protuberance (Krishna 1961). The winged imago of Procryptotermes is similar to that of Cryptotermes Banks in which the median vein is unsclerotized and intersects the radial sector near mid-wing. Of the fourteen described species of Procryptotermes (Scheffrahn & Křeček 2001), only one species, P. dioscurae Harris 1954, lacks a description of the soldier caste. It was described from three winged imagos collected from lights on Socotra Island, Yemen. Unlike soldiers, the imago caste is not present in the colony year round and often lacks species-level diagnostic characters. Therefore, the description of the soldier caste is highly desirable for most termite species.
... It is also encountered in the Bahamas and New Guinea and is responsible for enormous economic damage to wood. N. corniger is considered the most common and most important pest of the genus Nasutitermes (Albuquerque, Matias, Couto, Oliveira, & Vasconcellos, 2012;Mello, Costa, Da Silva, Silva, & Bezerra-Gusmão, 2014;Milano & Fontes, 2002;Scheffrahn, Krecek, Chase, Maharajh, & Mangold, 2006;Scheffrahn, Krecek, Szalanski, & Austin, 2005;Torales, 2002). ...
The termite Nasutitermes corniger is a serious pest infesting urban areas of Brazil and many other countries. Control largely depends on synthetic pesticides whose indiscriminate use can impact the environment and the health of humans and other animals. Alternative strategies against insect pests, such as biological control by entomopathogenic fungi, could be effective while minimising these deleterious effects. We analysed the actions of the entomopathogenic fungi Isaria farinosa, Isaria fumosorosea, and Isaria javanica against the insect N. corniger. Our results indicated that the fungi examined were pathogenic against N. corniger, with I. farinosa ESALQ1355 being the most efficacious strain, resulting in the death of 95% of the workers (LC50 6.66 × 10⁴ conidia/mL) and 85% of the soldiers (LC50 6.81 × 10⁴ conidia/mL). This is the first report of the pathogenicity of Isaria spp. on N. corniger. These in vitro results suggest that I. farinosa ESALQ1355 demonstrates a significant biological potential for controlling N. corniger.
