Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2022 | 14(6): 21290–21295
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4715.14.6.21290-21295
#4715 | Received 25 July 2021 | Final
received 25 May 2022 | Finally accepted 01 June 2022
First report of the termite Glyptotermes ceylonicus
(Blattodea: Isoptera: Kalotermitidae) from India: an example of discontinuous
distribution
Edwin Joseph 1, Chinnu Ipe 2, Nisha P.
Aravind 3, Sherin Antony 4 & Jobin Mathew 5
1–3 Department of Zoology, CMS
College, Kottayam, Kerala 686001, India.
4 Department of Zoology, Bharata Mata College, Thrikkakara,
Kochi Kerala 682021, India.
5 Department of Zoology, CMS
College, Kottayam, Kerala 686001, India.
1 edwinjoseph@cmscollege.ac.in, 2 chinnurupen@gmail.com, 3
nishaparavind@cmscollege.ac.in, 4 sherin@bharatamatacollege.in,
5 jobin@cmscollege.ac.in
(corresponding author)
Editor: K. Rajmohana,
Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India. Date
of publication: 26 June 2022 (online & print)
Citation: Joseph, E., C. Ipe, N.P.
Aravind, S. Antony & J. Mathew (2022). First report of the termite Glyptotermes
ceylonicus (Blattodea: Isoptera: Kalotermitidae) from
India: an example of discontinuous distribution. Journal of Threatened Taxa 14(6): 21290–21295. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4715.14.6.21290-21295
Copyright: © Joseph et al. 2022. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License. JoTT
allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any
medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of
publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to
thank Our research centre C.M.S College Kottayam. Chinnu Ipe
is thankful to MG university for the award of JRF.
Abstract: We report Glyptotermes
ceylonicus (Holmgren, 1911), an endemic Sri
Lankan termite, for the first time from India. Glyptotermes
show a high degree of endemism throughout the world. Record of this species
from the current location indicates a wide distribution of this species in
southern India, in the past, before the complete separation of Sri Lanka from
India. The current distribution of Glyptotermes
ceylonicus is also an example of discontinuous
distribution. Pictorial illustrations of the morphologically important parts
and revised key for the Indian species are provided.
Keywords: Dichotomous key, diversity, endemism, southern
India.
Glyptotermes ceylonicus
is a species
of damp wood termite endemic to the high elevations of Sri Lanka. Holmgren
(1911) described G. ceylonicus from
Peradeniya, Ceylon. Glyptotermes is a highly
endemic genus of the family Kalotermitidae. Krishna
et al. (2013), reported 456 species from this family, including 127
species of Glyptotermes. Two more
species were introduced into the genus recently, making a total of 129 Glyptotermes species worldwide. In India, eight of
the 13 species of Glyptotermes species
reported are endemic (Thakur et al. 2010; Amina & Rajmohana
2016; Sengupta et al. 2019). Three species of Glyptotermes—ceylonicus Holmgren (1911), dilatatus
(Bugnion & Popoff 1910), and minutes Kemner 1932—reported from Sri Lanka are endemic to the area
(Sri Lanka). None of the Indian species of Glyptotermes
were reported from Sri Lanka. Likewise, none of the Sri Lankan species of Glyptotermes were reported from India. The total termite species
reported from Kerala is 67, which belongs to three families and 30 genera
(Mathew & Ipe 2018).
Materials and Methods
Termites were collected from Pinnakkanadu, Kottayam district of Kerala State, located in
southern India. The study area is situated between 9.64°N and 76.76°E at an
altitude of 97.536 m. The collection was made from the core of a rotten wood of
Hevea brasiliensis
Müll.Arg, 1857, with high moisture content. The
periphery of the wood was severely infected with Heterotermes
indicola (Wasmann,
1902). The specimens were collected using an aspirator and preserved in 80%
alcohol. Voucher specimens were deposited in the Zoological Survey of India
(ZSI) Western Ghats Regional Centre Specimen Repository with register number
ZSI/WGRC/I.R.-INV.17975. Measurements were made in 80% alcohol under a stereo
zoom microscope, Labomed Luxeo
4D binocular microscope with attached camera and pixel pro software at
magnification of 8–35X. Morphological terminology, measurements and indices for
describing soldiers, workers and imago follow Roonwal
& Chhotani (1989) and Sands (1998). Mandibles,
antennae, and labrum of the imago, soldier and worker
caste were mounted on a glass slide for examining diagnostic characters.
Photographs were taken using Labomed Luxeo 4D binocular microscope with an attached camera.
Systematics
Family Kalotermitidae
Froggatt, 1897
Genus Glyptotermes
Froggatt, 1897
Glyptotermes ceylonicus (Holmgren, 1911)
Materials examined
CMSZMAI-111, Soldier-10, Imago-5, worker-10.
08.10.2018, Pinnakkanadu, Kottayam, Kerala, India,
9.63°N and 76.76°E, 97.536 m, coll. Jobin Mathew.
Diagnosis
Soldier: (Image 1, Table 1).
Head-capsule brownish yellow, frons reddish-brown with an inclination angle of
about 70°. Labrum and antennae pale yellow. Mandibles
black, body and legs straw yellow. Head sparsely and body moderately hairy.
Mandibles with short hairs at basal humps. Head-capsule sub-rectangular, length
a little less than twice width. Antennae with 12 segments, segment three
shortest. Mandibles thick, stout, and short, broadly narrowed at tips. Left
mandible with two large and broad marginal teeth. First marginal situated at
about one-fourth from the distal tip or closer to tip, second marginal
broader and situated medially or just below first postmentum
long, club-shaped, widest anteriorly at one fourth, waist long and narrow,
minimum width of waist less than half to about half of maximum width.
Imago: (Image 2, Table 2). Head
brown, paler in front. Pronotum paler than head. Abdomen brownish above paler
below. Wings iridescent, with brownish anterior veins. Head thick, almost quadrately oval. Eyes and ocelli are small, ocelli
separated from the eyes by their diameter or a little more. Clypeus short.
Antenna 13 segmented, distinctly thickened distally. Segment two is almost as
long as three.
Pseudoworker: (Image 3, Table 3).
Head-capsule pale yellow, antennae, labrum, legs and
body paler. Head and body moderately hairy. Head-capsule subcircular,
a little broader than its length to base of mandibles. Eyes translucent and
round. Ocelli absent. Antennae with 13 segments, segment three shortest. Labrum broadly tongue-shaped, hairy near anterior margin
and on body. Mandibles typically Glyptotermes-type.
Biology
Glyptotermes ceylonicus is a rare species in Sri Lanka
and India. It is reported from dead, decaying logs and branches of Hevea, Acacia, and Artocarpus integrifolia Linn.f. 1782. In Sri Lanka, it is found at an altitude
between 460–610 m. In India, it is reported at 97.536 m. The nest is in the
form of longitudinal galleries. The galleries and chambers contain a small
round heap of faecal matter.
Distribution
Sri Lanka: Chilaw,
Hewaheta, Elpitiya,
Kurunegala, Pasara, and Peradeniya.
India: Kottayam (new record)
Discussion
Kalotermitidae is a monophyletic lineage
(Inward et al. 2007); it contains lower termites that evolved during the
Cretaceous period. Three species of Kalotermitidae
are preserved in Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic, which belong to the
living genera Cryptotermes, Glyptotermes, and Incisitermes
(Rohr et al. 1986). The higher distribution and abundance of Glyptotermes in the Neotropical (34.2%) and
Indo-Malayan (31.5%) regions suggest, the genus had its origin in either of
these regions. They got dispersed in the late Jurassic or early Cretaceous to
the Australian and Papuan regions and dispersed through the Bering land bridge
(Emerson 1952, 1955) or they originated in southern landmass when they were
contiguous and dispersed before landmass drifted apart according to Warner’s
hypothesis (Chhotani 1970). Either of the two
theories gives an insight into the reason behind the peculiar distribution.
Studies show that East Gondwana,
including India, split from West Gondwana between 165 and 150 million years ago
(Krutzsch 1989; McLoughlin 2001; Briggs 2003). The
collision of the Deccan plate (comprising India, Sri Lanka, and Seychelles)
with Laurasia during the Eocene between 55 and 40 million years ago led to the
rise of the Himalayan chain (Partridge 1997; Willis & McElwain 2002). The
tropical climate of this region supports the development of the tropical biome
in southeastern Asia. Sri Lanka was probably
connected to India until 6,000 years ago, with a continuous stretch of tropical
rain forest, which permitted the exchange of fauna of these regions. Later, Sri
Lanka separated from the Indian mainland due to rise in sea levels (McLoughlin
2001).
Roonwal & Chottani
(1989) conducted extensive studies on the termite fauna of the Indian
subcontinent and reported 12 species of Glyptotermes.
Thakur et al. (2010), introduced a new species, Glyptotermes
roonwali, from northern India. Amina & Rajmohana (2016), introduced a new species, Glyptotermes chiraharitae,
from southern India in 2016, and the presence of two Glyptotermes
species were revalidated by Rituparna et al.
(2019) in 2019. Currently, a total of 17 Glyptotermes
species are reported from the Indian region. Earlier it was thought that Glyptotermes ceylonicus
was restricted to Sri Lanka. This is not a very common species and was earlier
reported from Chilaw, Hewaheta,
Elpitiya, Kurunegala, Pasara,
and Peradeniya at an elevation of 460–610 m (Hemachandra
et al. 2012). This species prefers to feed on dead, decaying logs and branches
of Hevea, Acacia, and Artocarpus integrifolia
with high water content (Roonwal & Chhotani 1989). Through the present study, we report Glyptotermes ceylonicus
for the first time in India. The population is found in the western part
of Western Ghats, 500 km (aerial
distance) away from the currently known location, at an elevation of 97.536 m.
The species may have been widely distributed in southern India before the
separation of Sri Lanka from India. Invasion through traded goods is thin
because artificial transport of this rare species is difficult (Chhotani 1970). These family of termites are obscure in
nature, except Paraneotermes simplicicornis, which exclusively dwells in woody
structures (Thakur et al. 2010), resulting in under-exploration. Another reason
for the absence of this species from the area between Sri Lanka and current
location might be due to the extinction in the intermediate areas due to the
influence of anthropogenic factors (Basu et al.
1996). Amina et al. (2013) reported Sri Lankan termite Hospitalitermes
monoceros (Konig, 1779)
from Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Western Ghats,
Kerala. This also supports our view that many termites are distributed in
southern India and Sri Lanka and later dwindled to narrow geographical areas.
The present documentation of Glyptotermes ceylonicus is an example of discontinuous distribution.
Table 1. Measurements of soldier cast of Glyptotermes ceylonicus.
|
Characters |
Present study |
Roonwal & Chhotani (1989) |
|
|
Range |
Mean |
|
|
|
Total body Length |
7.00–7.3 1 |
7.15 |
6.5–10.4 |
|
Head Length to the base of mandible |
2.11–2.19 |
2.15 |
2.67–3.00 |
|
Head Width |
1.37–1.4 |
1.38 |
1.5–1.67 |
|
Mandible Length |
0.97–1.00 |
0.98 |
0.90–1.00 |
|
Labrum Length |
0.35–0.38 |
0.36 |
- |
|
Labrum Width |
0.34–0.35 |
0.345 |
- |
|
Pronotum Length |
1.72–1.75 |
1.73 |
- |
|
Pronotum Width |
1.32–1.38 |
1.35 |
- |
|
Postmentum Length |
1.92–1.95 |
1.93 |
1.90–2.33 |
|
Postmentum Width Maximum |
0.49–0.58 |
0.53 |
0.5–0.6 |
|
Postmentum Width Minimum |
0.2–0.23 |
0.21 |
0.23 |
|
Antenna segments |
12 |
- |
12 |
Table 2. Measurements of imago cast of Glyptotermes ceylonicus.
|
Characters |
Present study |
Roonwal & Chhotani (1989) |
|||
|
Range |
Mean |
|
|
||
|
Total Length with wings |
8.5–9.63 |
9.06 |
8.5–11.0 |
|
|
|
Total Length without wings |
4.8–5.77 |
5.28 |
4.7–6.0 |
|
|
|
Head Length |
1.47–1.49 |
1.48 |
1.33–1.52 |
|
|
|
Head Width |
1.24–1.29 |
1.26 |
1.15–1.30 |
|
|
|
Labrum Length |
0.31–0.33 |
0.32 |
- |
|
|
|
Labrum Width |
0.29–0.31 |
0.30 |
- |
|
|
|
Pronotum Length |
0.61–0.66 |
0.63 |
- |
|
|
|
Pronotum Width |
1.06–1.09 |
1.07 |
- |
|
|
|
Diameter of the eye |
0.27–0.30 |
0.28 |
- |
|
|
|
Diameter of Ocellus |
0.09–0.11 |
0.10 |
- |
|
|
|
Antenna segments |
13 |
- |
13–14 |
|
|
Table 3. Measurements of pseudo-worker cast of Glyptotermes
ceylonicus.
|
Characters |
Present study |
Roonwal & Chhotani (1989) |
|
|
Range |
Mean |
||
|
Total body Length |
7.94–8.6 |
7.15 |
7.9–8.6 |
|
Head Length to the base of mandible |
1.30–1.42 |
1.36 |
1.40 |
|
Head Width |
1.45–1.5 |
1.47 |
1.5 |
|
Labrum Length |
0.46–0.48 |
0.47 |
0.47 |
|
Labrum Width |
0.39–0.42 |
0.40 |
0.43 |
|
Pronotum Length |
0.57–0.62 |
0.59 |
- |
|
Pronotum Width |
1.09–1.14 |
1.11 |
- |
|
Antenna segments |
13 |
- |
13 |
Revised key to the indian
species of Glyptotermes (based on soldier
caste)
(Froggatt 1897; Thakur et al. 2010; Amina & Rajmohana 2016; Rituparna et al.
2019)
1. Large species; frons sharply inclined in
front at an angle of more than 65°
.......................................................................................
2
— Small
species; frons gradually inclined in front at an angle of 45–50 °
...............................................................................................
5
2. Head much
longer (1.7–1.85 times) than wide, left mandible with four marginal teeth
….............................................................… 3
— Head not
much longer (a little more than 1.5 times) than wide left mandible with
three marginal teeth …………………………….…….… 4
3. Head
length to base of mandible 3.20–3.50 mm, head width 1.90–2.05 mm).
Antennae 14–15 segmented; mandibles long (1.48–1.58 mm)
……...................... ..................................................…..…..
Glyptotermes tikaderi
Chhotani & Bose, 1985
— Head length
to base of mandibles 2.67–3.00 mm, headwidth
1.50–1.67 mm; antennae 12-segmented; mandibles shorter (0.90–1.00 mm)
......................................... .......................................................
G. ceylonicus (Holmgren, 1911)
4. Antennae
14 segmented; labrum subsquare,
broader than long; postmentum long (1.78 mm),
waist much narrower, postmentum contraction index
0.42; small species .................................................................................................................
G. taruni Bose, 1999
— Antennae 12 segmented; labrum
tongue shaped, longer than wide; postmentum not much
long (1.48–1.70 mm), waist comparatively wider, postmentum
contraction index 0.47–0.52; large species ................ G. chiraharitae Amina & Rajmohana,
2016
5. Head
capsule large and wide (head length to base of mandibles 1.93–2.27 mm,
head width 1.25–1.40 mm); antennae 12–14 segmented ....................................................................
................................................... G. teknafensis Akhtar, 1975
— Head capsule small and narrow (head length to
base of mandibles 1.18–1.73 mm, head width 0.88–1.20 mm); antennae
8–12 segmented …………............................... ................................................................................…………………
6
6. Head width
less than 1.00 mm
...........................................................................................................................................................
7
— Head width
more than 1.00 mm
…………………….............................................................................................................…………………
10
7. Ocelli
absent; antennae 10–11 segmented
…………..........................................................................…………
G. ukhiaensis Akhtar, 1975
— Ocelli
present; antennae 8–12 segmented
………………………..............................................................................................……………….
8
8. Epicranial suture faintly visible; antennae 9–10 segmented
............................................................... G. caudomunitus Kemner, 1932
— Epicranial suture distinct; antennae 8–12 segmented
………….............................................................................…………………………….
9
9. Mandibles
basally bumped at outer margins; antennae 8–10 segmented ……………….....………………………. G. tripurensis Thakur, 1975
— Mandibles
with a weak basal bump; antennae 11–12 segmented …………............……………………….….. G.
roonwali Thakur et al. 2010
10. Antero-lateral
corners of head sharply pointed in font ……………………..........................................................................................….
11
— Antero-lateral
corners of head rounded and not pointed in font
....................................................................................................
13
11. Mandibles
with prominent basal hump; antennae 9–11 segmented ………………………… G. coorgensis (Holmgren & Holmgren, 1917)
— Mandibles with weaker basal humps; antennae
11–12 segmented
…………..........................................................................…………
12
12. Margin
between 2nd and 3rd marginal teeth of left mandible not
sharp and roundly incurved; postmentum narrow at
waist (width at waist 0.16–0.20 mm)
.....................................................................................
........................ G. sensarmai Maiti, 1976
— Margin between 2nd and 3rd
marginal teeth of left mandible, not continuous, but with angular cutting
edges; postmentum comparatively wider at waist
(0.19–0.29 mm) …………………………………….......................................... G. brevicaudatus Haviland, 1898
13. Head
comparatively wide (head width index 0.67–0.77); epicranial
suture incomplete; postmentum wide (maximum width of postmentum 0.40–0.43 mm)
……………………........................................ ...............………….…... G. almorensis Gardner, 1945
— Head comparatively narrow (head width index
0.59–0.66); epicranial suture complete; postmentum narrow (maximum width of postmentum
0.30–0.37 mm) …………….............................................. ..................
G. nicobarensis Maiti
& Chakraborty, 1981
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