Roisin, Bourguignon & Scheffrahn & Nagy & Sonet & Host & Roisin, 2016

Bourguignon, Thomas, Scheffrahn, Rudolf H., Nagy, Zoltán Tamás, Sonet, Gontran, Host, Benoît & Roisin, Yves, 2016, Towards a revision of the Neotropical soldierless termites (Isoptera: Termitidae): redescription of the genus Grigiotermes Mathews and description of five new genera, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 176 (1), pp. 15-35 : 19

ROISIN GEN. NOV. ( FIGS 2A–D , 7B , 8B , 10 , 11 ;

TABLE 3)

Type species: Amplucrutermes inflatus Bourguignon & Roisin , described below.

Description

Worker: Medium-sized (see Table 3). Head pale yellow, rounded to slightly ovoid, fully covered by about 60 setae. Fontanelle indistinct. Mandibles as in Figure 2D . Fore tibia strongly inflated, about three times as long as wide. Digestive tract as in Figure 8B , with short mixed segment. Mesenteric part of mixed segment apically inflated into a small, whitish diverticulum. Enteric valve inserted into an extension of the paunch, consisting of six elongated pads, each composed of about 100 scales and endowed posteriorly with about 15 weakly sclerotized spines.

Imago: Unknown.

Diagnosis

Amplucrutermes is clearly distinct from all other described South American soldierless termite genera. It can be recognized by its enlarged fore tibia, which are similar to Tetimatermes but less concave and lacking proximal glands. The enteric valves of Amplucrutermes , composed of about 100 scales and 15 weakly sclerotized apical spines, are also diagnostic ( Fig. 2C ).

Etymology

We named this genus ‘ Amplucrutermes ’ meaning large legs: amplus = large, crus = legs.

Figures

Figure 2. Worker. Amplucrutermes inflatus sp. nov.: A, head; B, foreleg; C, enteric valve (spread on slide); D, mandibles.

Figure 7. Worker enteric valve armature, depicted by confocal microscopy. A, Grigiotermes hageni comb. nov.; B, Amplucrutermes inflatus sp. nov.; C, Humutermes krishnai sp. nov.; D, Humutermes noiroti sp. nov.; E, Hydrecotermes arienesho sp. nov.; F, Hydrecotermes kawaii sp. nov.; G, Patawatermes turricola comb. nov.; H, Patawatermes nigripunctatus comb. nov.; I, Rubeotermes jheringi comb. nov. (G, I, reproduced with the permission of Host et al., 2014).

Figure 8. Worker digestive tracts. A, Grigiotermes hageni comb. nov.; B, Amplucrutermes inflatus sp. nov.; C, Humutermes krishnai sp. nov.; D, Hydrecotermes arienesho sp. nov.; E, Patawatermes nigripunctatus comb. nov.; F, Rubeotermes jheringi comb. nov.. From left to right: dorsal, right, ventral, and left views.

Figure 10. Distribution maps of samples examined in this study.

Figure 11. Majority rule consensus phylogenetic tree including 13 focal species constructed by Bayesian inference. Numbers on branches are posterior probabilities. Species from South America are in blue font. The scale bar represents the number of mutation per site.