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Redescription of Formosan Subterranean Termite, Coptotermes Formosanus (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae), with Three New Synonyms from China

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Redescription of Formosan Subterranean Termite, Coptotermes Formosanus (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae), with Three New Synonyms from China 2020 ACTA ENTOMOLOGICA 60(2): 599–608 MUSEI NATIONALIS PRAGAE doi: 10.37520/aemnp.2020.041 ISSN 1804-6487 (online) – 0374-1036 (print) www.aemnp.eu RESEARCH PAPER Redescription of Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae), with three new synonyms from China Guan-Yu CHEN1), Yun-Ling KE2), Wei-Ren LIANG1) & Hou-Feng LI1,*) 1) Department of Entomology, National Chung Hsing University, 145 Xingda Rd., Taichung, 40227, Taiwan 2) Institute of Zoology, Guangdong Academy of Science. No. 105 Xingang Road West, Guangzhou, 510260, Guangdong *) Corresponding author, e-mail: [email protected] Accepted: Abstract. The Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki, 1909, is an 30th October 2020 important structural pest in Mainland China, Japan, Taiwan, Bahamas, and the United States. Published online: Coptotermes formosanus was fi rst described in Japanese, and the morphological description 10th November 2020 was too simple for congeneric species diff erentiation, resulting in confusion in species identi- fi cation. To date, ten junior synonyms of C. formosanus have been reported. To avoid further confusion, we redescribed C. formosanus based on the type specimen and the specimens from the type locality, Taiwan. Most of the Coptotermes Wasmann, 1896 taxonomy has been clarifi ed worldwide and the Chinese case remains an outlier, with many species that need to be revised. We further examined the taxonomic statuses of four Chinese species, C. chang- taiensis Xia & He, 1986, C. hekouensis Xia & He, 1986, C. shanghaiensis Xia & He, 1986, and C. suzhouensis Xia & He, 1986. We proposed that C. changtaiensis, C. hekouensis, and C. suzhouensis are the junior synonyms of C. formosanus. Even though the morphological characters of C. shanghaiensis are similar to C. formosanus, the body size of the former is signifi cantly smaller. Additional Coptotermes samples collected from the Shanghai area would be required for the taxonomic status of C. shanghaiensis to be confi rmed. Key words. Blattodea, Isoptera, Rhinotermitidae, taxonomy, synonym, China, Taiwan Zoobank: http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:9F167CB8-B5E5-4DF0-8C0B-94007FBD1FC8 © 2020 The Authors. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Licence. Introduction realms between 1949 and 1996. In this period of time, over Termite control and construction repair cost tens of one hundred termite taxonomic papers were published in billions of US dollars worldwide annually (R S China and Chinese termite taxonomists increased drama- 2012, S 2002). The termite genus, Coptotermes Wasmann, tically. However, not a single termite revisionary study 1896, contains the highest proportion of pest species and regarding Chinese termite species was conducted in this is considered the most economically important termite period of time. E (1999) pointed out that these group (S S 2000, L et al. 2010, R S studies are parochial in status and need to be revised. Re- 2012, S et al. 2015). Coptotermes formosanus cent termite taxonomic reviews of several termite genera Shiraki, 1909 and Coptotermes gestroi (Wasmann, 1896), including, Prorhinotermes Silvestri, 1909 (L H.-F. et al. are more notorious than the other congeners because of 2011), Copto termes (C et al. 2016), Sinocapriter- their invasiveness tendencies (G 1969, E 2010). mes Ping & Xu, 1986 (C et al. 2016) and Stylotermes Even though Coptotermes is such an important pest genus, Holm gren & Holmgren, 1917 (L et al. 2017) also the taxonomic status of many Coptotermes species is still support Eggleton’s doubt on the validity of Chinese termite not clarifi ed (C et al. 2016). species. The misclassifi cations of Coptotermes species are E (1999) reviewed the description and syno- likely due to underestimation of intraspecifi c morphologi- nymy rates of termite species among the biogeographic cal variation and the selection of too few numbers of indivi- Chen.indd 599 10.11.2020 11:51:44 600 CHEN et al.: Redescription and new synonyms of Coptotermes formosanus (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae) duals for morphometric analysis of both soldier and winged type specimens is not permitted. Hence, we only examined imago castes (K B 2003; L Z. Q. et al. 2011, the morphology of the type specimens. The measurements 2012; C et al. 2016), which was commonly found of the four species, C. changtaiensis, C. hekouensis, in the taxonomic studies of Chinese Coptotermes species in C. shanghaiensis, and C. suzhouensis were taken onsite 1980s‒1990s (Z et al. 1984, P 1985, T et al. 1985, under a stereomicroscope with an ocular micrometer. L H 1986, X H 1986, H Q 1992, G We re-examined the characters used to diff erentiate these et al. 1995). Twenty Coptotermes species in China were four species from C. formosanus in X H (1986). The suspected as the synonyms of C. formosanus or C. gestroi termite castes of type specimens and additional material (C et al. 2016), as all publicly available genetic examined in this study are abbreviated as A, alate (winged sequences from Chinese Coptotermes samples currently imago); N, nymph; S, soldier; W, worker. match either of the two species. Unfortunately, the type material of these questionable species is not available for Systematics genetic characterization, sending the confi rmation of their validity or their junior synonymy into a taxonomic limbo. Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki, 1909 (Figs 1–3; Tables 1–2) Among the 21 Chinese Coptotermes species, C. formo- C optotermes formosanus Shiraki, 1909: 229, 239–241 (imago, soldier) sanus was fi rst described in 1909. The original morpho- Termes (Coptotermes) formosanus: O (1909: 33, pl. 11, fi gs 2, 3, logical description of C. formosanus was too simple for 11, 12). congeneric species diff erentiation, resulting in confusion Coptotermes formosanus: O (1912: 75–80, pl. 1: fi g. 1, pl. 2: fi gs. in species identifi cation. Ten junior synonyms of C. for- 3, 21). mosanus have been reported (K et al 2013, Li et Coptotermes formosae Holmgren, 1911c: 192 (imago) Coptotermes hongkonensis Oshima, 1914: 7–10 (imago, soldier) pl. 1, al. 2012). To avoid further confusion and to clarify the fi g. 6. taxonomic status of Coptotermes species in China, in this Coptotermes intrudens Oshima, 1920: 262–264 (imago, soldier, worker), study, we fi rst redescribed C. formosanus, based on the pl. 7. neotype specimen designated by L et al. (2010) and many Coptotermes eucalyptus Ping, 1984: 186–187, 189 (soldier), fi g. 2. samples collected from the type locality, Taiwan. We provi- Coptotermes xiaoliangensis Ping, 1984: 184–185, 188 (soldier), fi g. 1. Coptotermes guangzhouensis Ping, 1985: 317–318, 326–327 (soldier), ded comprehensive morphological data of C. formosanus, fi g. 1. and further compared its morphometric data with that of Coptotermes heteromorphus Ping, 1985: 320–321, 327 (soldier), fi g. 4. the type specimens of the other four Chinese species, Coptotermes communis Xia He, 1986: 166–167, 179 (imago, soldier), C. changtaiensis, C. hekouensis, C. shanghaiensis, and fi gs 48–56. C. suzhouensis, described by X H (1986). The results Coptotermes rectangularis Ping & Gong, 1986: 157–158, 160 (soldier), fi g. 5. support C. changtaiensis, C. hekouensis, and C. suzhouen- Coptotermes guizhouensis He & Qiu, 1992: 721–723 (imago, soldier), sis are the junior synonyms of C. formosanus. More sam- fi gs 1–6. ples collected from S hanghai area are needed for further Coptotermes changtaiensis Xia & He, 1986: 164–165 (soldier), fi gs confi rmation of the taxonomic status of C. shanghaiensis. 31–41, syn. nov. Coptotermes hekouensis Xia & He, 1986: 162–164 (imago, soldier), fi gs 16–30, syn. nov. Material and methods Coptotermes suzhouensis Xia & He, 1986: 167–169 (imago, soldier), The neotype of C. formosanus deposited in the Nati- fi gs 57–65, syn. nov. onal Museum of Natural Science, Taichung City, Taiwan Type locality. Taiwan (original description: S 1909), Taiwan: (NMNS) and 24 C. formosanus specimens preserved in Taoyuan (neotype designed by L et al. (2010)). the National Chung Hsing University Termite Collection, Type material studied. N: ‘TW49, Taoyuan Co. / Taoyuan City [ Taichung City, Taiwan (NCHU) were used for morpho- 桃園], 150m / 24.99033/121.30314 / 6/20/2006 col. H.-F. Li / Coptotermes metric measurements and species re-description. All the formosanus’, 1A, male. Worker caste from the same colony of the neotype specimens are preserved in 95% ethanol. Measurements was designated to gene analysis in the previous study (L et al. 2009). were acquired by using a Leica M205 C stereomicroscope Partial mitochondrial sequences of COII, 12S rRNA, and 16S rRNA are with a Leica MC170 HD digital camera. Morphometric available in GenBank with accession number EU805758, EU805712, and EU805735, respectively. data were measured with LAS software (version 4.4.0, Additional material studied. TAIWAN: C C.: Chiayi City: Leica Application Suite, Wetzlar, Germany) using the 23.48°N, 120.44°E, 4-VI-2007, H.-F. Li, 3S (TW38); 23.48°N, 120.44°E, standard characters of R (1969). The colors of 4-VI-2007, H.-F. Li, 3A (TW37). H C.: Hualien City: 24.00°N, sample were described by comparing with the M unsell 121.64°E, 29-IV-2013, G.-R. Wang, 3A (TW4174); 23.97°N, 121.60°E, color system (Munsell Color Company 1975) to determine 17-IV-2013, G.-R. Wang, 3A (TW4139); 23.98°N, 121.60°E, 20-IV- 2013, G.-R. Wang, 1A (TW4140). Shoufeng Township [壽豐]: 23.87°N, hue, value, and chroma of each target character. 121.60°E, 29-V-2012, G.-R. Wang, 3A, 3S (TW4069). L C.: We examined the type specimens of the winged imagos Nangan Township [南竿]: 26.15°N, 119.93°E, 8-VI-2012, J.-F. Tsai, of C. hekouensis (n = 1), C. shanghaiensis (n = 17), and 3A (TW4070). N C.: Huisun [惠蓀林場]: 24.09°N, 121.03°E, C. suzhouensis (n = 8), the soldiers of C.
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