Estudo taxonômico dos Apicotermitinae (Isoptera: Termitidae) da coleção de Isoptera do museu de biodiversidade Tauari

Abstract

Termites are eusocial insects belonging to the infraorder Isoptera (Blattodea) and it is estimated that there are several species to be described. Currently, some families and subfamilies have a well-resolved taxonomy. However, in some groups, especially the neotropical Apicotermitinae, there are many gaps in knowledge about the species diversity, generating the Linnaean deficit. This is due to the fact that the neotropical Apicotermitinae do not have the soldier caste, only workers being collected. This study aimed to identify termite species of the subfamily Apicotermitinae collected in fragments in the Eastern Amazon and Cerrado, deposited at the Tauari Biodiversity Museum. The external and internal morphology of workers from 539 samples was studied. 48 species were found, 36 of them new to science. In the present study, it was demonstrated that the enteric valve has great taxonomic importance for Apicotermitinae. The comparative study carried out in this work offers a perspective of which morphological characters are important for species delimitation, highlighting the use of the enteric valve and the spines present in the foretibia. In addition, this study aimed to be the starting point for the taxonomic analysis of Apicotermitinae from the Isoptera Collection of the Tauari Biodiversity Museum.