Discovery of a Cryptic Termite Genus, Stylotermes (Isoptera: Stylotermitidae), in Taiwan, With the Description of a New Species

A new species of the genus <i>Glaesotropis</i> Gratshev and Zherikhin, 1995 (Coleoptera, Anthribidae) from Rovno amber

“…Autotropis is distributed in East Asia (six species), Southeast Asia (three species) and South Asia (four species) (Rheinheimer, 2004). Species of this genus develop on Zelkova (Morimoto, 1981) and Carpinus (Legalov, 2011a); both are known from the Eocene of Europe (Eckfeld, Germany); interestingly, Zelkova can be infested by stylotermitids (Liang et al, 2017), which were recently described from Rovno amber (Perkovsky and Vasilenko, 2020). An assumption can also be made about the trophic links of Glaesotropis species with deciduous trees.…”

Social evolution in termites reduces natural selection efficacy

“…However, this division doesn’t align with established subfamilies in taxonomy. Data on species characteristics were collected from various literature sources (Ahmad, 1963; Atkinson and ES Adams, 1997; Barbosa and Constantino, 2017; Bourguignon, Scheffrahn, et al, 2010; Chhotani, 1975; Constantino and De Souza, 1997; Constantino, 1990; De Saeger, 1954; Dejean and Fénéron, 1996; Dupont et al, 2009; Emerson and Banks, 1965; Evans, 2011; Florian et al, 2019; Fougeyrollas et al, 2015; F Gay, 1974; F Gay and Barrett, 1983; FJ Gay and JA Watson, 1982; Ghesini and Marini, 2013; Goodisman and Crozier, 2002; Hanus et al, 2006; Hellemans et al, 2017; Husseneder et al, 1998; Krishna, 1963; Krishna and CL Adams, 1982; Krishna and Araujo, 1968; Lewis, 2009; Liang et al, 2017; Maistrello and Sbrenna, 1996; Martius and Ribeiro, 1996; Matsuura, 2002; Miller, 1994; Miura et al, 2003; Noirot, 1959; Noirot, 1989; Parmentier and Roisin, 2003; Rasib and Saeed Akhtar, 2012; Scheffrahn and Krecek, 1999; Scheffrahn, Su, et al, 1999; Snyder, 1924; Soleymaninejadian et al, 2014; Thorne, 1984; Vargo, 2019; Vargo et al, 2006; J Watson, Brown, et al, 1989; J Watson, Metcalf, et al, 1977; Williams, 1966). Similar to the dataset in Evangelista et al (2019), the search scope was extended to include closely related genera and subfamilies because of shared characteristics among closely related species.…”

The trail-following communication in Stylotermes spp. (Blattodea, Isoptera, Stylotermitidae)

“…Termites are the most prominent decomposers at the global scale, with a total biomass comparable to ants, the other eusocial insect dominating the Earth (Bar-on et al 2018; Tůma et al 2019). The 3,000 known termite species belong to ten living families: Mastotermitidae, Hodotermopsidae, Archotermopsidae, Hodotermitidae, Stolotermitidae, Kalotermitidae, Stylotermitidae, Rhinotermitidae, Serritermitidae, and Termitidae (Krishna et al 2013; Wang et al 2022), with Stylotermitidae being largely unknown in respect to their biology (Liang et al 2017;Wu et al 2018). A single extant genus in this family, Stylotermes, includes 45 described species living from India through Bangladesh, China, Taiwan to Malaysia (Krishna et al 2013;Liang et al 2017;Wu et al 2018).…”

“…The 3,000 known termite species belong to ten living families: Mastotermitidae, Hodotermopsidae, Archotermopsidae, Hodotermitidae, Stolotermitidae, Kalotermitidae, Stylotermitidae, Rhinotermitidae, Serritermitidae, and Termitidae (Krishna et al 2013; Wang et al 2022), with Stylotermitidae being largely unknown in respect to their biology (Liang et al 2017;Wu et al 2018). A single extant genus in this family, Stylotermes, includes 45 described species living from India through Bangladesh, China, Taiwan to Malaysia (Krishna et al 2013;Liang et al 2017;Wu et al 2018). Stylotermes is a sister group to all remaining Neoisoptera characterised by the presence of a frontal gland, and reveals unique combination of characters intermediate between basal and advanced taxa (Wu et al 2018).…”