Morphology And Molecular Identification Of Common Species Of Genus Odontotermes In China

Termites of the genus Odontotermes belonged to the Macrotermitine(Termitidae, Isoptera)and theywere the most species-rich one of genus within the subfamily. More than172species had beendescribed since Holmgren established this genus. The species of Odontotermes mainly distribute inAfrica and Asian. There are27described species distributed in China. The species within Odontotermeswere limited number of morphological characters and complex morphological variation, which resultedin that their taxonomy was poorly resolved. Hence, it is necessary to use integrated method to improvedour understanding of the taxonomy of this genus and accumulate foundation for completive revision.In the morphological study, more than130specimens were collected from southwest area ofChina,6common species are selected as research emphasis. Their morphological characters weredescribed and measureed, to filter reliable characters to identify them. The result shows that the size ofhead capsule and the position of the marginal tooth on the left mandible can diagnose into taxon clearly,but the shape of postmentum is relatively stable, which is remarkable characters for identification.Within the closely related species, such as O. formosanus,O. proformosanus, and O. hainanensis, theratio of width and length of postmentum shown remarkable differenciation. The ration of O. formosanusis less than0.65, O. proformosanus between0.65and0.7, O. hainanensis was large than0.7. O.gravelyi could be separated from the group of O. longignathus,O.gravelyi, and O. angustignathus by theratio of width and length of postmentum.We also used molecular genetic techniques to provided new insights into the process of taxonomyof this genus. In the one hand, We sequenced7species and some unidentified specimens ofOdontotermes, the phylogeny tree of cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene and16S ribosomal RNAgeneindicate that O. zunyiensis should be the synonym of O. formosanus and O. angustignathus is ancomplex species. In the other hand, we sequenced13species of Macrotermitine, reconstruct thephylogeny of Macrotermitine. The result shown that the genetic distances between genus Hypotermesand Odontotermes are less than interspecies of Odontotermes which strongly supported the gemusHypotermes returned to one of subgenus of the genus Odontotermes.