Since the inception of Linnaean taxonomy, termite species and genus descriptions have been mostly based on the morphology of soldiers, sometimes complemented by alate characters, though these are seldom discriminant. However, narrowly soldier-based descriptions may overemphasise ancestral characters and lead to the establishment of non-monophyletic taxa. In this paper, we used an integrative taxonomic approach that incorporates the morphology of all castes, including workers, as well as molecular and chemical data, to describe Palmitermes impostor Hellemans & Roisin, 2017 (Termitidae : Termitinae), a new termite genus and species from French Guiana. Although the soldiers of P. impostor resemble those of Termes Linnaeus, 1758, the digestive tract and mandibles of workers suggest that Palmitermes is closely related to Cavitermes Emerson, 1925. The sister-group relationship between Palmitermes and Cavitermes was confirmed by a phylogenetic reconstruction based on full mitochondrial genome sequences as well as by the comparison of the profiles of cuticular hydrocarbons of workers with those of related taxa. Our study illustrates the benefits of using an integrative taxonomic approach to describe new taxa and the pitfalls of using soldier morphology as the exclusive set of characters in termite systematics.
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6 June 2017
Mitochondrial and chemical profiles reveal a new genus and species of Neotropical termite with snapping soldiers, Palmitermes impostor (Termitidae : Termitinae)
Simon Hellemans,
Thomas Bourguignon,
Pavlína Kyjaková,
Robert Hanus,
Yves Roisin
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Invertebrate Systematics
Vol. 31 • No. 4
August 2017
Vol. 31 • No. 4
August 2017
Anatomy
Cavitermes
cuticular hydrocarbons
French Guiana
Isoptera
mitochondrial genome
Termes