Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Rocha, Mauricio M
• Morales-Corrêa E Castro, Adriana C
• Cuezzo, Carolina
• Cancello, Eliana M
• Robillard, Tony

Titel

Phylogenetic reconstruction of Syntermitinae (Isoptera, Termitidae) based on morphological and molecular data

Ist Teil von

• PloS one, 2017-03, Vol.12 (3), p.e0174366-e0174366

Ort / Verlag

United States: Public Library of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The subfamily Syntermitinae comprises a group of Neotropical termites with 18 genera and 101 species described. It has been considered a natural group, but relationships among the genera within the subfamily remain uncertain, and some genera appear to be non-monophyletic. Here, we provide a comprehensive phylogeny including six Neotropical species of Termitinae as outgroup, 42 Syntermitinae species as ingroup, 92 morphological characters (from external and internal anatomy of soldier and worker castes) and 117 molecular sequences (109 obtained for this study and 8 from GenBank) of 4 gene regions (41 and 22 from Cytochrome Oxidase I and II respectively, 19 from Cytochrome b, and 35 from 16S rDNA). Morphological and molecular data were analyzed in combination, with the Bayesian inference method, and the important aspects of termite biology, defense and feeding habits are discussed based on the resulting tree. Although useful for providing diagnostic characters, the morphology of the soldier caste reveals several cases of convergence; whereas the feeding habit shows indications of evolutionary significance.