Species Diversity of Puerto Rican Heterotermes (Dictyoptera: Rhinotermitidae) Revealed by Phylogenetic Analyses of Two Mitochondrial Genes

Eaton, Tyler D.; Jones, Susan C.; Jenkins, Tracie M.

doi:10.1093/jisesa/iew099

Cited by 6 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Our study is supplementary to that of Eaton et al (2016) in that it largely uses a subset of the same Puerto Rican Heterotermes samples (n = 60 of 76 samples). These were assigned to H. tenuis , H. convexinotatus , or H. cardini on the basis of their 16S rRNA and cytochrome oxidase subunit II (COII) phylogeny.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our k -means cluster analyses specified 3, 4, and 2 morphometric-delineated groups within the sampled Heterotermes fauna. The first analysis was premised according to the conclusion of Eaton et al (2016) that there are 3 valid Heterotermes spp. in the Puerto Rican archipelago.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…occur in the Caribbean Region. The third was premised according to the phylogenetic hypothesis that H. tenuis is sister to a clade including H. convexinotatus and H. cardini (Szalanski et al 2004; Eaton et al 2016): if this were the case, one would expect specimens to group into two clusters. It was not possible to delineate one or more metrics on a total of 40 specimens (5 H. tenuis , 8 H. convexinotatus , and 27 H. cardini ), so these were excluded from k -means cluster analysis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three samples from Puerto Rico were included in their study, all identified as H. convexinotatus . In contrast, Eaton et al (2016) reported H. tenuis , H. convexinotatus , and H. cardini in Puerto Rico based on molecular phylogenies of two mitochondrial loci from 76 Puerto Rican samples, with morphological confirmation of species identification. Furthermore, their phylogenomic data provided strong evidence that the proposed undescribed Heterotermes (Szalanski et al 2004) were consistent with H. cardini .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Consequently, alates (winged reproductives) are essential for reliable species identification of those Heterotermes spp. putatively present in Puerto Rico (Snyder 1924; Szalanski et al 2004; Eaton et al 2016). Since alates are produced only seasonally, they are difficult to obtain and are seldom properly associated with their parent colonies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Seeking quantitative morphological characters for species identification in soldiers of Puerto Rican Heterotermes (Dictyoptera, Blattaria, Termitoidae, Rhinotermitidae)

Griebenow

Jones

Eaton

2017

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Subterranean termites in the genus Heterotermes Froggatt (Rhinotermitidae: Heterotermitinae) are pantropical wood feeders capable of causing significant structural damage. The aim of this study was to investigate soldier morphological attributes in three Puerto Rican species of Heterotermes previously identified by sequencing of two mitochondrial genes and attributed to Heterotermes tenuis (Hagen), H. convexinotatus (Snyder) and H. cardini (Snyder). Soldiers (n = 156) were imaged and measured using the Auto-Montage image-stacking program. We demonstrated that Puerto Rican Heterotermes soldiers could not be identified to species level based upon seven morphometric indices or any combination thereof. Nor could differences in soldier head pilosity be used to discriminate species, in contrast to previous findings. However, previously described characters of the soldier tergal setae were reported to be useful in discriminating H. tenuis from both of its Puerto Rican congeners.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Seeking quantitative morphological characters for species identification in soldiers of Puerto Rican Heterotermes (Dictyoptera, Blattaria, Termitoidae, Rhinotermitidae)

Griebenow

Jones

Eaton

2017

Self Cite

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Termite diversity in Neotropical dry forests of Colombia and the potential role of rainfall in structuring termite diversity

Casalla

Korb

2019

Biotropica

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Termites are ecosystem engineers that play an important role in the biotransformation and re‐distribution of nutrients in soil. The dry forests are endemic repositories, but at same time, they are most threatened by extensive livestock and crop farming, fires, and climate change. In Colombia, the best‐protected dry forests are located in the north. The termite fauna of dry forests are poorly known. The aim was to identify the termite species occurring in tropical dry forests of the Colombian Caribbean coast in relation to diet and precipitation, temperature, elevation, and soil properties. A total of 32 species in 1,103 occurrences were found. Termitidae accounted for 78% of the species richness with the Anoplotermes‐group, Microcerotermes, and Nasutitermes being the dominant genera. Differences in species composition and abundance were found across sites. These differences may be linked to anthropogenic disturbance and polygyny and polydomy. Strikingly, our highest elevation site (334 m) had the highest species richness much higher than the two lower elevation sites. This implies an inversion of the common elevation‐diversity gradient, also found for termites which can be explained by increasing precipitation with elevation in the dry forest. An analysis of termite species richness at the global scale confirms that termite species richness correlates positively with rainfall. Hence, rainfall seems to positively affect termite diversity. In line, the studied Colombian tropical dry forests had low diversity compared to rain forests. A decline of species‐rich soil‐feeding termites with increasing aridity may explain why the highest termite diversity occurs in humid tropical rain forests. Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.

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Towards a synthesis of the Caribbean biogeography of terrestrial arthropods

Crews

Esposito

2020

BMC Evol Biol

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Background: The immense geologic and ecological complexity of the Caribbean has created a natural laboratory for interpreting when and how organisms disperse through time and space. However, competing hypotheses compounded with this complexity have resulted in a lack of unifying principles of biogeography for the region. Though new data concerning the timing of geologic events and dispersal events are emerging, powerful new analytical tools now allow for explicit hypothesis testing. Arthropods, with varying dispersal ability and high levels of endemism in the Caribbean, are an important, albeit understudied, biogeographic model system. Herein, we include a comprehensive analysis of every publicly available genetic dataset (at the time of writing) of terrestrial Caribbean arthropod groups using a statistically robust pipeline to explicitly test the current extent of biogeographic hypotheses for the region. Results: Our findings indicate several important biogeographic generalizations for the region: the South American continent is the predominant origin of Caribbean arthropod fauna; GAARlandia played a role for some taxa in aiding dispersal from South America to the Greater Antilles; founder event dispersal explains the majority of dispersal events by terrestrial arthropods, and distance between landmasses is important for dispersal; most dispersal events occurred via island hopping; there is evidence of 'reverse' dispersal from islands to the mainland; dispersal across the present-day Isthmus of Panama generally occurred prior to 3 mya; the Greater Antilles harbor more lineage diversity than the Lesser Antilles, and the larger Greater Antilles typically have greater lineage diversity than the smaller islands; basal Caribbean taxa are primarily distributed in the Greater Antilles, the basal-most being from Cuba, and derived taxa are mostly distributed in the Lesser Antilles; Jamaican taxa are usually endemic and monophyletic. Conclusions: Given the diversity and deep history of terrestrial arthropods, incongruence of biogeographic patterns is expected, but focusing on both similarities and differences among divergent taxa with disparate life histories emphasizes the importance of particular qualities responsible for resulting diversification patterns. Furthermore, this study provides an analytical toolkit that can be used to guide researchers interested in answering questions pertaining to Caribbean biogeography using explicit hypothesis testing.

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Species Diversity of Puerto Rican Heterotermes (Dictyoptera: Rhinotermitidae) Revealed by Phylogenetic Analyses of Two Mitochondrial Genes

Cited by 6 publications

References 34 publications

Seeking quantitative morphological characters for species identification in soldiers of Puerto Rican Heterotermes (Dictyoptera, Blattaria, Termitoidae, Rhinotermitidae)

Seeking quantitative morphological characters for species identification in soldiers of Puerto Rican Heterotermes (Dictyoptera, Blattaria, Termitoidae, Rhinotermitidae)

Termite diversity in Neotropical dry forests of Colombia and the potential role of rainfall in structuring termite diversity

Towards a synthesis of the Caribbean biogeography of terrestrial arthropods

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