Rugitermes volcanensis Scheffrahn, 2020

Scheffrahn, Rudolf H. & Carrijo, Tiago F., 2020, Three new species of Rugitermes (Isoptera, Kalotermitidae) from Peru and Bolivia, ZooKeys 1000, pp. 31-44 : 31

Rugitermes volcanensis Scheffrahn sp. nov. Figures 4C, D , 8 ; Tables 1, 2

Diagnosis.

See the diagnoses of R. aridus and R. rufus above.

Type locality.

Bolivia, Amboró National Park, Refugio Los Volcanes, Santa Cruz District (Fig. 9B ).

Material examined.

Holotype. One male delate imago (with pseudergates): Bolivia, Amboro 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, Amboro 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 ).

Description.

Dealated imago (Fig. 4C, D ). Head capsule, pronotum, thorax, abdomen, and wing scales concolorous chestnut brown. Compound eye small, elliptical. Ocellus very small, ovoid, hyaline coloration contrasting with brown head capsule; three-quarters diameter removed from eye margin. Head vertex and frons covered with over a dozen erect setae ca 0.10-0.20-mm-long; with faint rugosity at frontal flange. Pronotum wider than head capsule; anterior margin weakly concave; anterolateral corners nearly rectate, posterior margin slightly incised in middle; margins with few longer and many shorter setae. Pronotum interior with a few long setae. Antennae with basal article relative lengths 1>2<3>4. Wing scale covered with few short setae. Legs with femora light brown; tibia much lighter. Arolium present. Measurements of the holotype imago are shown in Table 2 .

Soldier (Fig. 8 ). Head capsule, in dorsal view, brown along margin of anteclypeus, anterolateral ridges, and antennal carinae grading to orange from frons to mid-capsule and yellow in posterior half; mandibles nearly black throughout. In ventral view, postmentum light orange-brown contrasting with light yellowish head capsule. Head capsule long, rectangular; lateral margins with very slight convergence, covered with a few setae except at occiput. Pronotum wider than long with a few long setae at margins and middle. Frontal flange and frons forming shallow furrow; angled 40° with plane of vertex. In dorsal view, antennal carina forms ovoid shelf eclipsing over half of the first antennal article. In lateral oblique view, antennal carinae project obtusely from the lower lateral margin of frons (Fig. 7C ). Antennal carinae and anterolateral ridges moderately rugose. The outer margin of each ridge forms angle of ca 140° (Fig. 7B ). Eye spots large, narrowly oblique, barely lighter than head capsule. Third antennal article nearly as long as second and fourth article combined. Mandibles slightly less than one-half length of head capsule; tip curves about 60°; outer margin of mid-blade straight, very shallow hump at base. Measurements of eight soldiers from four colonies are shown in Table 1 .

Distribution.

(Fig. 1 ). Same as R. rufus .

Etymology.

The species name " volcanensis " refers to the scenic type locality of Refugio Los Volcanes.

Phylogenetic and DNA barcode analysis.

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. 10 ).

In total, 17 entities were recognized as species according to the GMYC barcode analysis (different colors in Fig. 10 ; confidence interval: 10-23; Likelihood ratio test> 0.0001). Rugitermes bicolor , R. laticollis , R. panamae , R. rugosus , and R. unicolor were corroborated by the analysis, as well as the three new species described here and other nine still undescribed species.

Figures

Figure 1. Localities of the new Rugitermes species described herein.

Figure 4. Head and thorax of the Rugitermes rufus (A dorsal B lateral) and the R. volcanensis (C dorsal D lateral) imagos.

Figure 7. Field habitus of the imagos and soldiers of Rugitermes magninotus from Peru (UFTC no. PU 222).

Figure 8. Head and pronotum of the Rugitermes volcanensis soldier A dorsal B right (arrow pointing to outer margin of anterolateral ridge) C lateral (arrow pointing to antennal carinae) D ventral.

Figure 9. Biomes for new Rugitermes A R. aridus B R. rufus and R. volcanensis.

Figure 10. Bayesian phylogenetic tree of Neotropical Rugitermes using the COI region. Branch support is posterior probability. Different colors show the 17 recognized species by the GMYC analysis.