Termite Taxonomy, Challenges and Prospects: West Africa, A Case Example

Abstract

Termites are important ecosystem engineers. Yet they are often difficult to identify due to the lack of reliable species-specific morphological traits for many species, which hampers ecological research. Recently, termitologists working with West African termites (West African Termite Taxonomy Initiative) convened for a workshop with the aim of beginning to address this problem. Repeated determination of the same termite samples by the most renowned taxonomists for West African termites identified the huge scale of the problem, as less than 10% of all species could be unambiguously determined to the species level. Intensive discussions and comparisons increased the identification success to around 25% at the end of the workshop. Yet many groups remained problematic and molecular markers and barcoding techniques combined with species delimitation approaches will be needed to help resolve these existing taxonomic problems. Based on the outcome of this workshop, we propose concerted initiatives to address termite taxonomy on a global scale. We are convinced that dedicated workshops on regional taxonomy that follow a similar structured approach, with repeated determination of the same sample, will help overcome the difficulties that termite taxonomy faces. This initiative can also serve as a blueprint for other taxonomical groups that are difficult to identify.

Chemical Profiles and Anti-termite Activity of Hydrodistillation Residues From Three Aromatic Plants Acclimated in Burkina Faso

“…Amongst the insects present in West Africa, and therefore in Burkina Faso, termites are of major interest (Kaiser et al, 2015). They play an essential role in ecosystems due to their diversity, and, their service in organic matters decomposition, hydrology, as well as soil fertility (Jouquet et al, 2011;Kaiser et al, 2015;Korb et al, 2019). However, some termite species are major pests which attack various crops, household materials, wood and plants (Schyra & Korb, 2019) and can cause major economic losses (Ibrahim & Adebote, 2012).…”

Use of Termites by Farmers as Poultry Feed in Ghana

“…In addition, Macrotermes species were identified using Ruelle [24]. Only genera were included in the analyses, firstly because, in West Africa, most genera cannot be identified with certainty to the species level [25] and, secondly, because congeneric species usually had similar local names.…”

Can Differences in Symbiont Transmission Mode Explain the Abundance and Distribution of Fungus-Growing Termites in West Africa?

“…For a long time, research on fungus-growing termites was hampered by taxonomical problems. Except for a few, often iconic mound building species such as Macrotermes bellicosus, species could not be identified reliably using morphological means (Korb et al, 2019). Especially for the potentially speciesrich genera Microtermes and Odontotermes this is very difficult (Korb et al, 2019).…”

“…Except for a few, often iconic mound building species such as Macrotermes bellicosus, species could not be identified reliably using morphological means (Korb et al, 2019). Especially for the potentially speciesrich genera Microtermes and Odontotermes this is very difficult (Korb et al, 2019). Morphological species identification is generally difficult in termites as species-specific markers are rare (e.g., Hausberger et al, 2011;Korb et al, 2019; and references therein), but it is even more problematic in Macrotermitinae.…”