Molecular and morphological analysis of the family Calonymphidae with a description of Calonympha chia sp. nov., Snyderella kirbyi sp. nov., Snyderella swezyae sp. nov. and Snyderella yamini sp. nov.

Abstract

Calonymphids are a group of multinucleate, multiflagellate protists belonging to the order Cristamonadida (Parabasalia) that are found exclusively in the hindgut of termites from the family Kalotermitidae. Despite their impressive morphological complexity and diversity, few species have been formally described and fewer still have been characterized at the molecular level. In this study, four novel species of calonymphids were isolated and characterized: Calonympha chia and Snyderella yamini spp. nov., from Neotermes castaneus and Calcaritermes nearcticus from Florida, USA, and Snyderella kirbyi and Snyderella swezyae, spp. nov., from Calcaritermes nigriceps and Cryptotermes cylindroceps from Colombia. Each of these species was distinguished from its congeners by residing in a distinct host and by differences at the molecular level. Phylogenetic analyses of small subunit (SSU) rDNA indicated that the genera Calonympha and Stephanonympha were probably not monophyletic, though the genus Snyderella, previously only represented by one sequence in molecular analyses, appeared with these new data to be monophyletic. This was in keeping with the traditional evolutionary view of the group in which the morphology of the genus Snyderella is considered to be derived, while that of the genus Stephanonympha is ancestral and therefore probably plesiomorphic.