Zootaxa 4205 (5): 491–495 http://www.mapress.com/j/zt/ Copyright © 2016 Magnolia Press
ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition)
Correspondence
ZOOTAXA
ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition)
http://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4205.5.9 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:DC5A8CA7-253F-4F50-B63B-6D792700AABB
Coendutermes tucum Fontes (Isoptera, Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae): description of the imago caste and additional notes CAROLINA CUEZZO Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Nazaré, 481, CEP 04263-000, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. E-mail:
[email protected]
Coendutermes Fontes, 1985 is a monotypic South American termite genus. Coendutermes tucum Fontes, 1985, was described based on morphological characters from soldiers and workers collected in Mato Grosso, Brazil, and Jodensavanne, Suriname. Herein, I describe the imago caste of C. tucum for the first time with additional notes on soldiers, workers, and new distributional records. The studied material is deposited at the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (MZUSP). I use the terminology of Fontes (1987) to describe worker mandibles, and that of Noirot (2001) for the different parts of the digestive tube of workers. I measured the imagoes morphometric characters following Roonwal (1970): LH, length of head capsule (9); WH, width of head capsule without eyes (18); OF, occipito-fontanelle distance (23); DE, diameter of eye (48); LO, length of ocellus (55); WO, width of ocellus (56); EOD, eye-ocellus distance (57); LP, length of pronotum (65); WP, width of pronotum (68); LT, length of hind tibia (85). I took photographs of all castes with a stereomicroscope (Leica M205C) attached to a video camera (Leica DFC295) and images of gizzard and enteric valve under a microscope (Leica DM750B) attached to a video camera (Leica ICC50HD), then I combined the stacks of images with the software Leica LAS EZ 2.0 or Helicon Focus 5.2.11 X64. For the scanning electron micrographs (SEM), one soldier was dried to critical point while directly mounted on a stub with double face adhesive tape, then coated with gold and photographed with the SEM (Zeiss LEO 440 ®).
Genus Coendutermes Fontes Coendutermes Fontes, 1985: 135–137. Type-species. Coendutermes tucum Fontes, 1985, by original designation. Distribution. Neotropical region: Brazil (Mato Grosso; Rondônia, loc. nov.) and Suriname. Diagnosis. Imago, very hairy, small sized; distinct large eyes and ocelli; mandibles with concave molar area with ridges, M2 tooth from the right mandible with posterior margin slightly concave; postclypeus not inflated. Soldier, head capsule with distinct stout erect bristles over surface; vestigial mandibles, with short point; frontal tube short and conical throughout its length; convex postclypeus, forming a 45° angle with the axis of head capsule in profile; and antenna with 13 articles. Worker, mandibles with concave molar area with ridges and basal notch well-defined; digestive tube with a short mixed segment, dorsal torsion well-developed, first proctodeal segment joining the paunch at the left half of the abdomen in dorsal view; gizzard with a completely sclerotized cuticular armature, columnar folds I and II ornamented with small blunt and sparse spines; enteric valve armature weakly sclerotized, organized in two distinct rings with tiny blunt spines covering the cushions.
Coendutermes tucum Fontes Coendutermes tucum Fontes, 1985: 137–138 [soldier, p. 137, figs 1–3; probably type 1 worker, p. 137, figs 4–8]; C. tucum, Fontes 1998 (gut coiling, p. 377, figs 57–60). Type-locality. BRAZIL. Mato Grosso, Iquê-Juruena. Description. Imago (Figs 1–3). In dorsal view, head capsule subrectangular; frontal area between ocelli slightly depressed. Eyes semispherical rather rounded, very large, but clearly not reaching the lower margin of head capsule. Ocelli elliptical, larger than antennal socket; removed from eyes by a very small length. Fontanelle conspicously slit, slightly forked anteriorly, not depressed. Postclypeus not arched in profile, midline faint; anterior margin of postclypeus straight, but posterior margin slightly convex. Antenna with 15 articles. Mandibles as type 2 workers (see below). Pronotum wider than head without eyes; rather subtrapeizoidal in dorsal view, anterior lateral corners rounded, lateral Accepted by B. Mantovani: 31 Oct. 2016; published: 9 Dec. 2016
491
margins s-shaped, posterior margin straight but slightly emarginated; and midline area elevated, in profile. Posterior margin of meso- and metanotum emarginated; posterolateral corners of meso- and metanotum rounded. Tibial spurs 2:2:2. Head capsule with erect setae, dense short ones projecting toward front. Postclypeus with short hairs and some erect bristles. Pronotum covered with erect and many fine decumbent bristles. Wing scales with erect bristles, more abundant over costal margin, and with shorter decumbent setae over entire surface. Meso- and metanotum with short decumbent bristles. Tergites with dense coverage of short fine decumbent bristles, plus row of erect setae on each posterior margin. Sternites with erect setae over entire surface. Head capsule brown with no visible frontal marks. Postclypeus yellow-brown, paler than head capsule. Labrum yellow-white. Antennal articles yellow-brown. Legs yellowish. Thoracic nota and tergites yellowish brown; sternites lighter-colored than tergites. Range of measurements (mm) from one male and female from MZUSP 16464, and one male and female from MZUSP 19433: LH, 1.17–1.25; WH, 0.90–0.93; OF, 0.58–0.70; DE, 0.63–0.65; LO, 0.20–0.23; WO, 0.28; EOD, 0.03; LP, 0.75–0.80; WP, 1.23–1.28; LT, 2.05–2.13. Soldier (Figs 4–7). Surface of head capsule, but not nasus, with characteristic “bristles” and several rounded pits each having a central single hole (Figs 6, 7, see arrows). Worker (Figs 8–14). Two types of workers distinguished. Type 1 and 2 (Figs 8–11), both with gut coiling visible through abdomen. Gizzard with a completely sclerotized cuticular armature, columnar folds I and II ornamented with small blunt and sparse spines, pulvilli I well developed with pectinate scales, and pulvilli II reduced (Fig. 13). Enteric valve armature (P2) weakly sclerotized, organized in two distinct rings with tiny blunt spines covering the cushions; upper or anterior ring (closest to P1 or ileum) with three distinct rather oval cushions (Fig. 14, black arrow); lower or posterior ring (closest to P3 or paunch) with three major cushions alternating with three minor ones (Fig. 14). Ileum (P1) with three lines of tiny blunt spines throughout, joining at the oval cushions of the P2 upper ring (Fig. 14, white arrow), alternated there are three minor ones placed only at the distal part. The type 2 worker differs from type 1 by having the surface of the head capsule with comparatively more erect setae better seen in profile view; mandibles with larger apical teeth, and the third marginal tooth of the left mandible separated from the molar prominence by a wider gap. Also, type 2 worker with a broad pronotum, in dorsal view, and rather equal anterior and posterior lobes, in profile. Material examined at the MZUSP. Holotype. BRAZIL, MT, Iquê-Juruena, -12.00, -59.5, 23.vi.1980, AE Mill, Estação Ecológica da SEMA (08378). Paratypes. Iquê-Juruena (08379, 08380, 08381). SURINAME, Jodensavanne, Suriname River, ca. 50km S de Paramaribo, vi.1956-vii.1957, MA Knoppe (08382). New records. BRAZIL. Rondônia: Porto Velho, Jirau Hydroelectric Reservoir, Mutum-Paraná/Caiçara, -09.4532420, -64.8529020, 120m, 13.ii.2013, MA Ulysséa & AM Barbão, (16464*, 19433*); -09.4428190, -64.7946220, 98m, 27.vi.2010, TF Carrijo & SP Rosa (15108, 19434, 19435); Caiçara, 12.ix.2010, MM Rocha & VTC Mercado (19437); Mutum-Paraná/Mutum, -09.6100380, 65.0567380, 103m, 08.ix.2012, TF Carrijo & RG Santos (19438). MZUSP lots represented with * have imagoes besides soldiers and workers.
FIGURES 1–3. Coendutermes tucum female dealate, MZUSP 19433: 1, head in dorsal view; 2, head in profile; 3, thorax in dorsal view.
492
· Zootaxa 4205 (5) © 2016 Magnolia Press
CUEZZO
FIGURES 4–7. Coendutermes tucum soldier, MZUSP 19433: 4, head in dorsal view; 5, head in profile; 6, surface of head with characteristic bristles, arrow indicating the pits; 7, detail of a “bristle” and a pit, arrow showing the hole of the possible conducting canal.
Remarks. Soldiers from Rondônia, Brazil, fit those considered by Fontes (1985) from Mato Grosso, Brazil, and Jodensavanne, Suriname. In this way, no additional range of measurements is given. Šobotník et al. (2015) reported pits with similar holes at the soldier head capsule of Angularitermes Emerson, suggesting that those holes could be the conducting canals of class 3 secretory cells sensu Noirot & Quennedey’s classification. Functional significance of the characteristic “bristles” described as glandular by Fontes (1985) and the pits as well as their complementary processes on chemical alarm must be studied in Coendutermes.
Acknowledgments I receive support from São Paulo Research Foundation, Brazil (FAPESP), grant 2013/05610-1. I thank CRF Brandão for allowing image capture at Hymenoptera Lab., LM Guimarães for technical assistance with SEM micrographs, RH Scheffrahn and EM Cancello for suggestions.
IMAGO CASTE OF COENDUTERMES TUCUM
Zootaxa 4205 (5) © 2016 Magnolia Press ·
493
FIGURES 8–11. Coendutermes tucum workers, MZUSP 19433, 15108: 8, mandibles, type 1; 9, worker type I, profile; 10, mandibles, type 2; 11, worker type 2, profile.
FIGURES 13–14. Coendutermes tucum workers, MZUSP 19433: 13, gizzard armature, type 1 worker. CI: column I; CII: column II, PI: pulvillus I; PII: pulvillus II. 14, enteric valve cushions arranged in two rings and ileum ornamentation of worker type 1. P1: ileum ornamentation, white arrow. P2: oval cushions, black arrow.
494
· Zootaxa 4205 (5) © 2016 Magnolia Press
CUEZZO
References Fontes, L.R. (1985) A new genus and species of Nasutitermitinae from South America (Isoptera, Termitidae). Revista Brasileira de Entomologia, 29, 135–138. Fontes, L.R. (1987) Morphology of the alate and worker mandibles of the soil-feeding nasute termites (Isoptera, Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae) from the Neotropical region. Revista Brasileira de Zoologia, 3, 503–531. Fontes, L.R. (1998) Novos aditamentos ao "Catálogo dos Isoptera do Novo Mundo," e uma filogenia para os gêneros neotropicais de Nasutitermitinae. In: Fontes, L.R., Filho, E.B., Cupins: o desafio do conhecimento. São Paulo: Fundação de Estudos Agrários Luiz de Queiroz., pp. 309–412. Noirot, C. (2001) The gut of termites (Isoptera). Comparative anatomy, systematics, phylogeny. II. Higher termites (Termitidae). Annales de la Société Entomologique de France (n.s.), 37, 431–471. Roonwal, M.L. (1970) Measurement of termites (Isoptera) for taxonomic purposes. Journal of the Zoological Society of India, 21, 9– 66. Šobotník, J., Bourguignon, T., Carrijo, T.F., Bordereau, C., Robert, A., Křížková, B., Constantini, J.P. & Cancello, E.M. (2015) The nasus gland: a new gland in soldiers of Angularitermes (Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae). Arthropod Structure and Development, 44, 401–406. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asd.2015.08.006
IMAGO CASTE OF COENDUTERMES TUCUM
Zootaxa 4205 (5) © 2016 Magnolia Press ·
495
