Record of New Termite (Blattodea, Termitidae) Species in Togo West Africa.

Abstract

Simple SummaryIn the sub-Saharan regions of Africa, there are many termite species, of which very few have been correctly identified and described. The large majority of these species is either wrongly identified or waiting to be found and described because of the lack of identification keys and the errors within the existing keys. One way to overcome this problem is the use of reference works that contain illustrated parts of the body of termites along with accurate measurements of the features involved in termite identification. The purpose of this study is to provide pictures of the heads of soldiers (commonly used in termite identification) along with measurements of parts of the head and leg. A total of 12 termite species were examined. Seven of these species were already described, while the other five appear to have not been described before. Ten out of the twelve species are new records for the country.In Africa, despite their economic and ecological importance, termites are still relatively unknown. Their systematic remains uncertain, the approximate number of species for many biogeographic areas is underestimated, and there is still confusion in the identification of the species for many genera. This study combined morphological traits with morphometric measurements to determine several species collected in Togo and provided head illustrations of soldiers. Termites were sampled within the frame of transects laid in several landscapes inside three different parks including: Fosse aux Lions, Galangashie, and Fazao Malfakassa. Samples were grouped by morphospecies and measurements of part of the body (length and/or width of head, mandible, pronotum, gula, and hind tibia) were conducted. Twelve termite species including Foraminitermes corniferus, Lepidotermes sp., Noditermes cristifrons, Noditermes sp. 1 and Noditermes sp. 2, Promirotermes holmgren infera, Promirotermes sp., Unguitermes sp., Amitermes evuncifer, A. guineensis, A. truncatus, and A. spinifer were separated and pictured. Ten new species were added to the check list of the country, including five unidentified ones. Further studies such as biomolecular analysis should be carried out in order to clarify the status of these unknown species.