Patawatermes, TURRICOLA (SILVESTRI, 1901)

Bourguignon, Thomas, Scheffrahn, Rudolf H., Nagy, Zoltán Tamás, Sonet, Gontran, Host, Benoît & Roisin, Yves, 2016, Towards a revision of the Neotropical soldierless termites (Isoptera: Termitidae): redescription of the genus Grigiotermes Mathews and description of five new genera, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 176 (1), pp. 15-35 : 26-27

PATAWATERMES TURRICOLA ( SILVESTRI, 1901) COMB. NOV. ( FIGS 5A , 7G , 9I, J , 10 ; TABLE 9)

Anoplotermes turricola Silvestri, 1901: 8 .

Anoplotermes turricola Silvestri, 1901 , in Krishna et al., 2013: 1344.

Anoplotermes bequaerti Snyder & Emerson , in Snyder, 1949: 104.

Grigiotermes bequaerti (Snyder & Emerson, 1949) , in Fontes, 1983: 139, syn. nov.

Grigiotermes bequaerti (Snyder & Emerson, 1949) , in Krishna et al., 2013: 1393.

Material examined

Syntypes of A. turricola : workers and alates, Brazil: Cuyabá: AMNH collection, F. Silvestri. Syntypes of A. bequaerti : workers (incorrectly labelled Anoplotermes pacificus ): Tacurú Pucú, Silvestri coll. ( MCGD).

Other material examined

Colombia: ULB collection: Llano _ T01 , Llano _ T04 : Casanare, Hacienda Juan Solito (06°01′N, 71°18′W), 12.viii.2012, collected by Y. Roisin .

Worker: Head covered by about 100 long bristles. Cushions of enteric valve with sclerotized armature composed of six tufts that are each composed of about 20 medium-sized spines.

Imago: Fontanelle of medium size, visible as a lighter spot between the eyes. Ocelli of medium size. Posteri- or margins of meso- and metanotum slightly emarginated with rounded angles.

New synonymy

Observations of external morphology and worker enteric valve armature in the type series of P. turricola and P. bequaerti revealed no consistent differences. We thus

consider these two species as synonyms, with precedence being held by P. turricola .

Diagnosis

Patawatermes turricola differs from P. nigripunctatus by its enteric valve armature with fewer, stouter spines with multidirectional orientation.

Figures

Figure 5. Worker. Patawatermes turricola comb. nov.: A, enteric valve (spread on slide). Patawatermes nigripunctatus comb. nov.: B, enteric valve (spread on slide); C, mandibles; D, foreleg; E, head.

Figure 7. Worker enteric valve armature, depicted by confocal microscopy. A, Grigiotermes hageni comb. nov.; B, Amplucrutermes inflatus sp. nov.; C, Humutermes krishnai sp. nov.; D, Humutermes noiroti sp. nov.; E, Hydrecotermes arienesho sp. nov.; F, Hydrecotermes kawaii sp. nov.; G, Patawatermes turricola comb. nov.; H, Patawatermes nigripunctatus comb. nov.; I, Rubeotermes jheringi comb. nov. (G, I, reproduced with the permission of Host et al., 2014).

Figure 9. Head, pronotum, mesonotum, and metanotum of alates. A, B, Grigiotermes hageni comb. nov.; C, D, Humutermes krishnai sp. nov.; E, F, Hydrecotermes arienesho sp. nov.; G, H, Hydrecotermes kawaii sp. nov.; I, J, Patawatermes turricola comb. nov.; K, L, Patawatermes nigripunctatus comb. nov.; M, N, Rubeotermes jheringi comb. nov. Scale bars = 1 mm.

Figure 10. Distribution maps of samples examined in this study.