Echinotermes biriba, a new genus and species of soldierless termite from the Colombian and Peruvian Amazon (Termitidae, Apicotermitinae)

Daniel Castro; Rudolf H Scheffrahn; Tiago F Carrijo

doi:10.3897/zookeys.748.24253

Echinotermes biriba, a new genus and species of soldierless termite from the Colombian and Peruvian Amazon (Termitidae, Apicotermitinae)

Zookeys. 2018 Apr 4:(748):21-30. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.748.24253. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Daniel Castro¹, Rudolf H Scheffrahn², Tiago F Carrijo³

Affiliations

¹ Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas SINCHI, Avenida Vásquez Cobo Calles 15 y 16, Leticia, Amazonas, Colombia.
² Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, 3205 College Avenue, Davie, Florida 33314, USA.
³ Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas, Universidade Federal do ABC, Rua Arcturus 03, Jardim Antares, 09606-070, São Bernardo do Campo, SP, Brazil.

Abstract

A new Apicotermitinae genus and species Echinotermes biriba is described from workers collected on the Andean-Amazon Piedmont in Colombia and Peru. The enteric valve armature of Echinotermes biriba Castro & Scheffrahn, gen. et sp. n. is a remarkably diagnostic character. A Bayesian phylogenetic analysis using the COI gene and including all other Neotropical Apicotermitinae genera, supports the new genus as a distinct terminal.

Keywords: Anoplotermes-group; Neotropic; enteric valve; taxonomy.