Isognathotermes fungifaber var. elongata (Sjöstedt, 1924)

Josens, Guy, Deligne, Jean, Harry, Myriam, Roy, Virginie, Akama, Pierre D., Coulibaly, Tenon, Dosso, Kanvaly, Goergen, Georg, Hasson, Michel, Kasangij, Patrick Kasangij A, Kifukieto, Carmel, Ru, Bruno Le, Loko, Laura Estelle Yêyinou, Ndiaye, Abdoulaye Baila, Roisin, Yves, Sion, Noémie, Šobotnik, Jan, Stiblik, Petr, Kuenda, Soki Kue Di, Traoré, Saran, Viage, Manuela, Wango, Solange Patricia, Kaymak, Esra, Bourguignon, Thomas & Hellemans, Simon, 2025, An integrative revision of the genus Isognathotermes (Termitidae: Cubitermitinae) with description of seven new species and four new subspecies, European Journal of Taxonomy 1024, pp. 1-197 : 175-176

Isognathotermes fungifaber var. elongata (Sjöstedt, 1924)

Figs 58–59

Revised herein as junior synonym of I. planifrons .

Cubitermes fungifaber var. elongata Sjöstedt, 1924b: 256 .

Cubitermes fungifaber var. elongata – Sjöstedt 1926: 221–225. — Snyder 1949: 159. — Josens & Deligne 2019: 42–44 (invalid name).

Cubitermes fungifaber – Krishna et al. 2013: 1923.

Isognathotermes planifrons (suspected synonymy) – Hellemans et al. 2021: 233.

Junior synonym of Isognathotermes planifrons (Sjöstedt, 1924) . Syn. nov.

Etymology

The epithet elongata from the Latin elongatus (elongated) refers to the soldier’s head, longer than in I. fungifaber .

Historical review

Sjöstedt (1924b: 256) very briefly described the soldier of this taxon under the name Cubitermes fungifaber var. elongata , mentioning that it had a longer head than the soldier of the main form.

Two years later he included this taxon in his soldier’s key of Cubitermes species ( Sjöstedt 1926: 221– 225).

Snyder (1949: 159) catalogued this taxon under the name Cubitermes fungifaber var. elongata in the sub-family Termitinae and reported its known geographical distribution.

According to Krishna et al. (2013: 1923), Emerson wrote in his unpublished “card catalog” that the subspecies C. fungifaber elongata was invalid and proposed that this subspecies became a junior synonym of C. fungifaber . However, this synonymy can no longer be accepted because the types of both taxa belong to different valve pattern groups, i.e., finitimus and fungifaber groups respectively ( Josens & Deligne 2019: 42–44).

Among the museum material identified as Cubitermes fungifaber var. elongata , the syntype morphology and EVA agree well with Cubitermes planifrons described in the same paper ( Sjöstedt 1924b: 255–256). Other samples from the AMNH and bearing the same name are also misidentified and belong to either I. fungifaber or I. severus . Other samples from the RMCA belong to I. phalloides sp. nov.

Hellemans et al. (2021: 233) placed this species in the restored genus Isognathotermes .

One subsample has been examined (see Isognathotermes fungifaber, DJ 0270). Krishna et al. (2013: 1943) mention that other subsamples are deposited in UMMZ: holotype (soldier) and morphotype (queen), not examined.

Given its EVA and morphology and since it was collected in the same type of ecosystem, Cubitermes fungifaber var. elongata (Sjöstedt, 1924) is from now on considered a junior synonym of Isognathotermes planifrons (Sjöstedt, 1924) .