Acorhinotermes claritae Castro & Scheffrahn

Castro, Daniel & Scheffrahn, Rudolf H., 2019, A new species of Acorhinotermes Emerson, 1949 (Blattodea, Isoptera, Rhinotermitidae) from Colombia, with a key to Neotropical Rhinotermitinae species based on minor soldiers, ZooKeys 891, pp. 61-70 : 61

Acorhinotermes claritae Castro & Scheffrahn sp. nov.

Type material.

Holotype. Minor soldier from colony CATAC 2722.

Type-locality.

COLOMBIA: Amazonas, Leticia (-4.08975, -69.92705).

Paratypes. COLOMBIA, Amazonas, Leticia, (-4.08975, -69.92705): 12.VII.2018, James Chase col., 87 m, 1 alate nymph, 45 minor soldiers, 156 workers (CATAC 2722); 12.VII.2018, Daniela Manso col., 87 m, 11 minor soldiers, 56 workers (CATAC 2723); (-4.08900, -69.92497): 12.VII.2018, James Chase col., 91 m, 5 minor soldiers, 2 workers (CATAC 2724); (-4.04875, -70.00527): 13.VII.2018, Daniela Manso col., 106 m, 33 minor soldiers, 41 workers (CATAC 2750); (-4.04972, -69.92704): Daniel Castro col, 97 m, 5 minor soldiers, 4 workers (UF no. CO 918).

Diagnosis.

Minor soldier head with concave lateral margins forming a posterior constriction, with prominent mandibular points extend beyond the fontanelle.

Description.

Alate nymph. ( Fig. 1A, B ) Head capsule yellowish-brown, widely oval with numerous long bristles. Antennae with 20 articles, 2<3=4. Dorsum of body concolorous with head capsule. Compound eyes subcircular, eye margins wide and broadly separated from antennal sockets. Ocelli of small size, oval, well separated from eyes. Clypeus linguiform, not buttressed by frontal projection. Pronotum margin with numerous long bristles; rounded lateral margins. Mandibles with M1 more prominent than apical teeth. Right mandible with M1 more projected than left mandible. Left mandible with M2 projected to half the length of M1, M2 and M3 forms an obtuse angle, M3 and molar tooth projected at same distance.

Measurements (mm) for a single alate nymph: head length with labrum 1.27, head length to postclypeus 1.46, maximum width of the head with eyes 1.39, width of head without eyes 1.21, diameter of eye 0.25, ocellus diameter 0.08, length of pronotum 0.78, width of pronotum 1.36, total body-length without wings 6.81.

Comparisons . Acorhinotermes claritae sp. nov. has more abundant bristles in lateral view. The ocelli and eyes are smaller than the A. subfusciceps imago, and the clypeal projection projects more acutely in A. claritae sp. nov. and it is not buttressed by a frontal projection as in A. subfusciceps ( Fig. 1C ).

Minor soldier. ( Fig. 2 ; Table 1 ) Head capsule, in dorsal view, with concave lateral margins forming posterior constriction 10-12 long erect bristles, without microscopic hairs. Antennae with 15 or 16 articles, formula 2=3<4=5. Mandible vestigial, point long, straight and sharp. Labrum hyperelongate, broadening apically; tip bilobed; nearly in same plane as vertex in lateral view. Fontanelle at basal one-fifth of labrum. Pronotum concolorous with head, with 4-8 dispersed bristles, 2-4 in anterior margin and 2-4 in surface, pronotum without microscopic hairs. Tergites pale yellow, margins covered by dense layer of hairs. Legs with many long and short bristles; thick bristles on foretibia.

Comparisons . Acorhinotermes claritae sp. nov. is smaller and has longer mandibular points than A. subfusciceps . In profile, the dorsa of the occiput, vertex, and labrum of A. claritae sp. nov. form a nearly straight line, while in A. subfusciceps this profile forms an obtuse angle ( Fig. 3A, B ). All minor soldiers of Dolichorhinotermes and Rhinotermes have the labrum tip bifurcated (forked or divided into two parts or branches), and it is much more bilobed in A. subfusciceps than in A. claritae sp. nov.

Biological notes.

Acorhinotermes claritae sp. nov. was collected in a secondary rain forest near the Tacana river, close to a “chagra” (indigenous agricultural production system). During the wet season, these areas are in flood zones. The colonies were found in trunks of dead trees and in big dry branches on the ground. One particular colony of this species was found in a same dead branch together with Heterotermes tenuis (Hagen, 1858) and Cylindrotermes parvignatus Emerson, 1949, and another colony with Silvestritermes gnomus (Constantino, 1991). Acorhinotermes claritae sp. nov. was collected in a unique locality near the city of Leticia, although we did surveys in other two sites of a radius no greater than 15 km, it was not collected.

Distribution.

The genus Acorhinotermes is distributed in the Amazon basin, Guiana shield and Caatinga ( Fig. 5 ). A. claritae sp. nov. is restricted to the Amazon basin.

Etymology.

The species is named in honor of Dr. Clara (Clarita) Peña-Venegas, who has supported and promoted the knowledge and inventories of termites and other terrestrial arthropods from the Colombian Amazon in the SINCHI Institute.

Key to the species of Neotropical Rhinotermitinae based on minor soldiers 1

Figures

Figure 1. Acorhinotermes spp. A, B alate nymph of Acorhinotermes claritae sp. nov., lateral and dorsal view C, D imago of Acorhinotermes subfusciceps, lateral and dorsal view. Scale bar: 1 mm.

Figure 2. Acorhinotermes claritae sp. nov., minor soldier A head in dorsal view B head in lateral view C head in ventral view.

Figure 3. Minor soldiers of Neotropical Rhinotermitinae deposited in UF and CATAC termite collections A-C Acorhinotermes subfusciceps D-F Dolichorhinotermes longidens G-I Dolichorhinotermes lanciarius.

Figure 4. Minor soldiers of Neotropical Rhinotermitinae deposited in UF and CATAC termite collections A-C Dolichorhinotermes longilabius D-F Rhinotermes hispidus G-I Rhinotermes marginalis.

Figure 5. Distribution map of Acorhinotermes spp. Black circles are records from University of Florida termite collection and the black diamond is the record of Silva et al. (2019).