New Termite Species Research Articles

A new termite (Isoptera, Termitidae, Syntermitinae, Macuxitermes) from Colombia.

A new species of termite, Macuxitermes colombicus Postle & Scheffrahn is described from soldiers and workers collected from Departamento Magdalena, Colombia. The soldier of Macuxitermes colombicus differs from its lone congener in having no protuberances on the head capsule.

A new termite (Isoptera: Termitidae: Termitinae: Proboscitermes) from Tanzania

A new species of termite, Proboscitermes mcgrewi Scheffrahn, is described from soldiers, workers, and a physogastric queen collected along the northeastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. The new species differs from all other mandibulate termite soldiers in having a relatively large proportion of head capsule volume anterior to the mandibular articulations.

Description of an early Cretaceous termite (Isoptera: Kalotermitidae) and its associated intestinal protozoa, with comments on their co-evolution

BackgroundThe remarkable mutualistic associations between termites and protists are in large part responsible for the evolutionary success of these eusocial insects. It is unknown when this symbiosis was first established, but the present study shows that fossil termite protists existed in the Mesozoic.ResultsA new species of termite (Kalotermes burmensis n. sp.) in Early Cretaceous Burmese amber had part of its abdomen damaged, thus exposing trophic stages and cysts of diverse protists. Some protists were still attached to the gut intima while others were in the amber matrix adjacent to the damaged portion. Ten new fossil flagellate species in the Trichomonada, Hypermastigida and Oxymonadea are described in nine new genera assigned to 6 extant families. Systematic placement and names of the fossil flagellates are based on morphological similarities with extant genera associated with lower termites. The following new flagellate taxa are established: Foainites icelus n. gen. n. sp., Spiromastigites acanthodes n. gen. n. sp., Trichonymphites henis n. gen., n. sp., Teranymphites rhabdotis n. gen. n. sp., Oxymonas protus n. sp., Oxymonites gerus n. gen., n. sp., Microrhopalodites polynucleatis n. gen., n. sp., Sauromonites katatonis n. gen., n. sp., Dinenymphites spiris n. gen., n. sp., Pyrsonymphites cordylinis n. gen., n. sp. A new genus of fossil amoeba is also described as Endamoebites proterus n. gen., n. sp. Fourteen additional trophic and encystid protist stages are figured and briefly characterized.ConclusionThis represents the earliest fossil record of mutualism between microorganisms and animals and the first descriptions of protists from a fossil termite. Discovering the same orders, families and possibly genera of protists that occur today in Early Cretaceous kalotermitids shows considerable behaviour and morphological stability of both host and protists. The possible significance of protist cysts associated with the fossil termite is discussed in regards the possibility that coprophagy, as well as proctodeal trophallaxis, was a method by which some termite protozoa were transferred intrastadially and intergenerationally at this time.

Benefits and Harms: The Balance Sheet-Reply

In Reply.— Dr Haas makes a very important point: decisions about interventions can be strongly influenced by the measure used to describe the effect of the intervention. In particular, describing the effect of an intervention as a relative change instead of an absolute change can lead to very different decisions. Dr Haas' disagreement with me, however, is not about an arithmetical error but about an important concept. This issue was discussed in the article on page 2501, but it is sufficiently important to justify another example. To avoid confusing the concepts with any personal beliefs about the desirability of colorectal cancer screening, I will use a nonmedical example. Imagine that there are reports of a new species of termite that, if it should infest your house, will virtually destroy it, causing damage in the range of, say, $100 000. Suppose there is a treatment that can be sprayed on your

A new Brazilian termite species and the first record of soldier dimorphism in the genus Orthogna thotermes (Isoptera, Termitidae)

A new species of termite, Orthognathotermes heberi, is described and the soldiers illustrated. It is similar in morphology and the structure of its nests to O. gibberorum from Mato Grosso. The soldiers are strongly dimorphic, 14% being minor soldiers whose heads are only 59% the length of those of the major ones. No such dimorphism has been recorded in any of the seven species already known in the genus.