Bioecological traits, abundance patterns and distribution extension of the soldierless Neotropical termite <em>Compositermes vindai</em> Scheffrahn, 2013 (Isoptera: Termitidae: Apicotermitinae)

  • M. Celina Godoy Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Av. Libertad 5470 (W3400AAS), Corrientes, Argentina.
  • Enrique R. Laffont Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Av. Libertad 5470 (W3400AAS), Corrientes, Argentina.
  • Juan M. Coronel Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Av. Libertad 5470 (W3400AAS), Corrientes, Argentina.

Abstract

The soldierless Neotropical Apicotermitinae is considered among the less known termite groups and its ecological relevance warrants studies about the biology and diversity of their species. We investigated the presence, distribution and relative abundance of the recently described species Compositermes vindai Scheffrahn, 2013 in natural and anthropized ecosystems of northeastern Argentina. Their nests and populations, as well as their presence inside other Termitidae mounds were examined. A standardized sampling protocol for termites was applied at five sites, with 100 x 2 m transects. Worker morphometric data from the surveyed localities are also reported. C. vindai was found in protected environments with little disturbance as well as in other altered ecosystems. The abundance patterns of C. vindai in the sampled areas varied from rare to intermediate and seemed not to be significantly affected by the environmental changes of the sites due to their land uses. The microhabitats occupied were mainly superficial soil and other Termitidae mounds (Cornitermes cumulans Kollar, 1832; Syntermes obtusus Holmgren, 1911 and Cortaritermes fulviceps Silvestri, 1901). C. vindai subterranean and diffuse nests showed a core surrounding by scattered chambers and tunnels extending into the surrounding soil. The small size colonies comprised workers, brachypterous nymphs and white immature larvae. Winged imagoes or primary reproductives were not found. These new records also extend the distribution of C. vindai across the biomes and ecoregions of the Neotropical ecozone and constitute the first reports of C. vindai from Argentina.

References

Acioli, A.N.S. (2007). Revisão taxonômica e relações filogenéticas do gênero Neotropical Ruptitermes Mathews, 1977 (Isoptera: Termitidae: Apicotermitinae). Doctoral Thesis, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Brazil, 169 pp.

Annoni, G.M., Coronel, J.M., Laffont, E.R. (2013). Dinámica poblacional de Cortaritermes fulviceps (Silvestri, 1901) (Isoptera, Termitidae). Revista de Agricultura 88: 90-100.

Apolinário, F.B. (2000). Estudos ecológicos acerca de ninhos de térmitas (Insecta: Isoptera) em floresta de terra firme da Amazônia central, com ênfase em Anoplotermes banksi Emerson, 1925. Doctoral Thesis, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Brazil, 202 pp.

Bandeira, A.G. (1989). Análise da termitofauna (Insecta: Isoptera) de uma floresta primaria e de uma pastagem na Amazonia Oriental, Brazil. Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi série Zoologia 5: 225-241.

Bandeira, A.G., Vasconcellos, A. (2002). A quantitative survey of termites in a gradient of disturbed highland forest in northeastern Brazil (Isoptera). Sociobiology 39: 429-439.

Bandeira, A.G., Vasconcellos, A., Silva, M.P., Constantino, R. (2003). Effects of habitat disturbance on the termite fauna in a highland humid forest in the Caatinga domain, Brazil. Sociobiology 42: 117-127.

Bignell, D.E., Eggleton, P. (2000). Termites in ecosystems. In: Abe, T., Bignell, D.E., Higashi, M. (Eds.). Termites: evolution, sociality, symbioses, ecology. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands. pp. 363-387.

Bourguignon, T., Šobotník, J., Lepoint, G., Martin, J.M., Roisin, Y. (2009). Niche differentiation among Neotropical soldierless soil-feeding termites revealed by stable isotope ratios. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 41: 2038-2043.

Bourguignon, T., Scheffrahn, R.H., Křeček, J., Nagy, Z.T., Sonet, G., Roisin, Y. (2010). Towards a revision of the Neotropical soldierless termites (Isoptera: Termitidae): redescription of the genus Anoplotermes and description of Longustitermes, gen. nov. Invertebrate Systematics 24: 357-370.

Bourguignon, T., Leponce, M., Roisin, Y. (2011a). Are the spatio-temporal dynamics of soil-feeding termite colonies shaped by intra-specific competition? Ecological Entomology 36: 776-785.

Bourguignon, T., Šobotník, J., Lepoint, G., Martin, J.M., Hardy, O.J., Dejean, A., Roisin, Y. (2011b). Feeding ecology and phylogenetic structure of a complex neotropical termite assemblage, revealed by nitrogen stable isotope ratios. Ecological Entomology 36: 261-269.

Bourguignon, T., Šobotník, J., Hanus, R., Krasulová, J., Vrkoslav, V., Cvačka, J., Roisin, Y. (2013). Delineating species boundaries using an iterative taxonomic approach: The case of soldierless termites (Isoptera, Termitidae, Apicotermitinae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 69: 694-703.

Brauman, A., Bignell, D.E., Tayasu, I. (2000). Soil-feeding termites: biology, microbial associations and digestive mechanisms. In: Abe, T., Bignell, D.E., Higashi, M. (Eds.). Termites: evolution, sociality, symbioses, ecology. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands. pp. 333-359.

Brown, A., Martínez, U., Acerbi, M., Corcuera, J. (2006). La Situación Ambiental Argentina 2005. Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Burkart, R., Bárbaro, N., Sánchez, R.O., Gómez, D.A. (1999). Ecoregiones de la Argentina. Administración de Parques Nacionales, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Carnevali, R. (1994). Fitogeografía de la provincia de Corrientes. INTA- Gobierno de la Provincia de Corrientes, Corrientes, Argentina.

Carrijo, T.F., Brandao, D., de Oliveira, D., Costa, D.A., Santos, T. (2009). Effects of pasture implantation on the termite (Isoptera) fauna in the Central Brazilian Savanna (Cerrado). Journal of Insect Conservation 13: 575-581.

Constantino, R. (1998). Catalog of the living termites of the New World (Insecta: Isoptera). Arquivos de Zoologia 35: 135-231.

Constantino, R. (1999). Chave ilustrada para a identificação dos géneros de cupins (Insecta: Isoptera) que ocorrem no Brasil. Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia 40: 387-448.

Coronel, J.M., Laffont, E.R., Torales, G.J., Porcel, E. (2001). Variación estacional en la composición de colonias de Termes saltans (Isoptera, Termitidae, Termitinae) en un sitio puntual de muestreo. FACENA 17: 3-13.

Costa, D.A., Assis de Carvalho, R., Ferreira de Lima Filho, G., Brandão, D. (2009). Inquilines and invertebrate fauna associated with termite nests of Cornitermes cumulans (Isoptera, Termitidae) in the Emas National Park, Mineiros, Goiás, Brazil. Sociobiology 53: 443-453.

Cunha, H.F., Orlando, T.Y. (2011). Functional composition of termite species in areas of abandoned pasture and in secondary succession of the Parque Estadual Altamiro de Moura Pacheco, Goiás, Brazil. Bioscience Journal 27: 986-992.

Daniele, C., Natenzon, C. (1994). Las regiones naturales de la Argentina: caracterización y diagnóstico. In: Daniele, C., Bukart, R., Del Valle Ruiz, L., Natenzon, C., Ardura, F. (Eds.). El sistema nacional de áreas naturales protegidas de la Argentina. Diagnóstico de su patrimonio y su desarrollo institucional. Administración de Parques Nacionales, Buenos Aires. pp. 1-34.

Davies, R.G. (2002). Feeding group responses of a Neotropical termite assemblage to rain forest fragmentation. Oecologia 133: 233-242.

Davies, R.G., Hernández, L.M., Eggleton, P., Didham, R.K., Fagan, L.L., Winchester, N.N. (2003). Environmental and spatial influences upon species composition of a termite assemblage across Neotropical forest islands. Journal of Tropical Ecology 19: 509-524.

DeSouza, O.F., Brown, V.K. (1994). Effects of habitat fragmentation on Amazonian termite communities. Journal of Tropical Ecology 10: 197-206.

Domingos, D.J., Gontijo, T.A. (1996). Multioccupation of termites mounds in Cerrado vegetation in South-Eastern Brazil. Revista Brasileira de Biologia 56: 717-723.

Donovan, S. (2002). A morphological study of the enteric valves of the Afrotropical Apicotermitinae (Isoptera: Termitidae). Journal of Natural History 36: 1823-1840.

Donovan, S.E., Griffiths, G.J.K., Homathevi, R., Winder, L. (2007). The spatial pattern of soil-dwelling termites in primary and logged forest in Sabah, Malaysia. Ecological Entomology 32: 1-10.

Eggleton, P., Bignell, D.E., Sands, W.A., Waite, B., Wood, T.G., Lawton, J. (1995). The species richness of termites (Isoptera) under differing levels of forest disturbance in the Mbalmayo Forest Reserve, southern Cameroon. Journal of Tropical Ecology 11: 85-98.

Eggleton, P., Bignell, D.E., Sands, W.A., Mawdsley, N.A., Lawton, J., Wood, T.G., Bignell, N.C. (1996). The diversity, abundance and biomass of termites under differing levels of disturbance in the Mbalmayo Forest Reserve, southern Cameroon. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences 351: 51-68.

Eggleton, P., Homathevi, R., Jeeva, D., Jones, D., Davies, R., Maryati, D. (1997). The species richness and composition of termites (Isoptera) in primary and regenerating lowland dipterocarp forest in Sabah, east Malaysia. Ecotropica 3: 119-128.

Florencio, D.F., Diehl, E. (2006). Termitofauna (Insecta: Isoptera) em remanescentes de floresta estacional semidecidual em Sao Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 50: 505-511.

Florencio, D.F., Marins, A., Rosa, C.S., Cristaldo, P.F., Araujo, A.P., Silva, I.R., De Souza, O. (2013). Diet segregation between cohabiting builder and inquiline termite species. PloS One 8: e66535. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0066535

Fontes, L.R. (1985). Potentialities of the appearance of the worker gut in situ for the identification of Neotropical genera of Apicotermitinae (Isoptera, Termitidae). Annals of Entomology 3: 1-6.

Fontes, L.R. (1986). Two new genera of soldierless Apicotermitinae from the Neotropical region (Isoptera, Termitidae). Sociobiology 12: 285-297.

Fontes, L.R. (1992). Key to the genera of New World Apicotermitinae (Isoptera: Termitidae). In: Quintero, D., Aiello, A. (Eds.). Insects of Panama and Mesoamerica. Oxford University Press, New York, USA. pp. 242-248.

Godoy, M.C., Torales, G.J. (1999). Importancia taxonómica de la válvula entérica en el género Grigiotermes Mathews (Isoptera: Termitidae, Apicotermitinae). FACENA 15: 19-23.

Grassé, P., Noirot, C. (1954). Apicotermes arquieri: ses constructions, sa biologie. Considerations generales sur la sous famille des Apicotermitinae nov. Annales Des Sciences Naturelles Zoologie 16: 345-388.

Jones, D.T., Eggleton, P. (2000). Sampling termite assemblages in tropical forests: testing a rapid biodiversity assessment protocol. Journal of Applied Ecology 37: 191-203.

Jones, D.T., Susilo, F.X., Bignell, D.E., Hardiwinoto, S., Gillison, A.N., Eggleton, P. (2003). Termite assemblage collapse along a land-use intensification gradient in lowland central Sumatra, Indonesia. Journal of Applied Ecology 40: 380-391.

Kambhampati, S., Eggleton, P. (2000). Taxonomy and phylogeny of termites. In: Abe, T., Bignell, D.E., Higashi, M. (Eds.). Termites: evolution, sociality, symbioses, ecology. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands. pp. 1-24.

Kurtz, D.B., J. Schellberg & M. Braun. (2010). Ground and satellite based assessment of rangeland management in sub-tropical Argentina. Applied Geography 30: 210-220.

Lepage, M., Darlington, J.PC. (2000). Population dynamics of termites. In: Abe, T., Bignell, D.E., Higashi, M. (Eds.). Termites: evolution, sociality, symbioses, ecology. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands. pp. 333-362.

Pequeno, P.A.C.L., Franklin, E., Venticinque, E.M., Serrão Acioli, A.N. (2013). The scaling of colony size with nest volume in termites: a role in population dynamics? Ecological Entomology 38: 515-521.

Lopes, D., Ruvolo-Takasusuki, C. (2010). Differentiation of Apicotermitinae (Isoptera: Termitidae) termite species through esterases. Sociobiology 55: 805-814.

Mathews, A.G. (1977). Studies on termites from the Mato Grosso State, Brazil. Academia Brasileira de Ciencias, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Martius, C., d’Arc Ribeiro, J. (1996). Colony populations and biomass in nests of the Amazonian forest termite Anoplotermes banksi Emerson (Isoptera: Termitidae). Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment 31: 82-86.

Noirot, C., Darlington, J.P. (2000). Termites nests: Architecture, regulation and defence. In: Abe, T., Bignell, D.E., Higashi, M. (Eds.). Termites: evolution, sociality, symbioses, ecology. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands. pp. 121-139.

Oliveira, D.E., Carrijo, T.F., Brandao, D. (2013). Species Composition of Termites (Isoptera) in different cerrado vegetation Physiognomies. Sociobiology 60: 190-197.

Olson, D., Dinerstein, E., Wikramanayake, E., Burgess, N., Powell, G., Underwood, E., D'Amico, J., Itoua, I., Strand, H., Morrison, J., Loucks, C., Allnutt, T., Ricketts, T., Kura, Y., Lamoreux, J., Wettengel, W., Hedao, P., Kassem, K. (2001). Terrestrial ecoregions of the world: a new map of life on Earth. BioScience 51: 933-938.

Redford, K.H. (1984). The termitaria of Cornitermes cumulans (Isoptera, Termitidae) and their role in determining a potential keystone species. Biotropica 16: 112-119.

Roisin, Y., Leponce, M. (2004). Characterizing termite assemblages in fragmented forests: A test case in the Argentinian Chaco. Austral Ecology 29: 637-646.

Roisin, Y., Dejean, A., Corbara, B., Orivel, J., Samaniego, M., Leponce, M. (2006). Vertical stratification of the termite assemblage in a Neotropical rainforest. Oecologia 149: 301–311.

Roonwal, M.L. (1970). Measurements of termites (Isoptera) for taxonomic purposes. Journal of the Zoological Society of India 21: 9-66.

Sands, W.A. (1972). The soldierless termites of Africa (Isoptera, Termitidae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 18: 1-244.

Sands, W.A. (1998). The identification of worker castes of termite genera from soils of Africa and the Middle East. CAB International, Oxford, UK.

Scheffrahn, R.H. (2013). Compositermes vindai (Isoptera: Termitidae: Apicotermitinae), a new genus and species of soldierless termite from the Neotropics. Zootaxa 3652: 381-391.

Scheffrahn, R.H., Křeček, J., Chase, J.A., Maharajh, B., Mangold, J. (2006). Taxonomy, biogeography, and notes on termites (Isoptera: Kalotermitidae, Rhinotermitidae, Termitidae) of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 99: 463-486.

Šobotník, J., Sillam-Dussès, D., Weyda, F., Dejean, A., Roisin, Y., Hanus, R., Bourguignon, T. (2010). The frontal gland in workers of Neotropical soldierless termites. Naturwissenschaften 97: 495-503.

Soki, K., Josens, G. (2010). Relation between termite numbers and the size of their mounds. Insectes Sociaux 57: 303-316.

Soki, K., Josens, G., Loreau, M. (1996). Growth and demography of Cubitermes speciosus mounds (Isoptera: Termitidae). Insectes Sociaux 43: 189-200.

Torales, G.J., Coronel, J.M. (2004). Qualitative and quantitative composition of colonies of Microcerotermes strunckii Sörensen (Isoptera, Termitidae). Sociobiology 43: 523-534.

Torales, G.J., Laffont, E.R., Arbino, M.O., Godoy, M.C. (1997). Primera lista faunística de los isópteros de la Argentina. Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina 56: 43-51.

Torales, G.J., Laffont, E.R., Arbino, M., Coronel, J.M. (1999). Composición de colonias de Cornitermes cumulans (Kollar) (Isoptera: Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae) en diferentes épocas del año. Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina 58: 189-196.

Torales, G.J., Laffont, E.R., Godoy, M.C., Coronel, J.M., Arbino, M.O. (2005). Update on taxonomy and distribution of Isoptera from Argentina. Sociobiology 45: 853-886.

Torales, G.J., Coronel, J.M., Laffont, E.R., Godoy, M.C., Arbino, M., Porcel, E. (2006). Analysis of the population from Nasutitermes coxipoensis nests (Isoptera: Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae), from a locality of the province of Corrientes (Argentina). Sociobiology 48: 223-236.

Torales, G.J., Coronel, J.M., Godoy, M.C., Laffont, E.R., Romero, V. (2008). Additions to the taxonomy and distribution of Isoptera from Argentina. Sociobiology 51: 31-47.

Vasconcellos, A., Bandeira, A.G., Moura, F.M., Araujo, V.F., Gusmaõ, M.A., Constantino, R. (2010). Termite assemblages in three habitats under different disturbance regimes in the semi-arid Caatinga of NE Brazil. Journal of Arid Environments 74: 298-302.
Published
2015-06-02
How to Cite
(1)
Godoy, M.; Laffont, E.; Coronel, J. Bioecological Traits, Abundance Patterns and Distribution Extension of the Soldierless Neotropical Termite <em>Compositermes Vindai</Em&gt; Scheffrahn, 2013 (Isoptera: Termitidae: Apicotermitinae). BNH 2015, 1, 26-34.
Section
Research Articles