Taxonomic assessment of the termite genus Neotermes (Isoptera: Kalotermitidae) in the Ryukyu-Taiwan Island arc, with description of a new species

Abstract

The Ryukyu Archipelago of Japan is a recognized global biodiversity hotspot with many endemic species. However, our knowledge of the termite fauna of the Ryukyu Archipelago is insufficient. Here, we report a new species of endemic drywood termite (Kalotermitidae) from the Ryukyu Archipelago. Our systematic study of the genus Neotermes (Isoptera: Kalotermitidae) from the Ryukyu–Taiwan Island arc using molecular and morphological methods found that N. koshunensis had also been composed of a second cryptic species, N. sugioi sp. nov. These two species are distributed allopatrically in the Ryukyu–Taiwan Island arc, with the former only in Taiwan and the latter only in the Ryukyu Archipelago. Our discovery of a new drywood termite species from the Ryukyu Archipelago suggests that both morphological and molecular assessments of the species now considered to be distributed widely in the Ryukyu–Taiwan Island arc are needed to clarify the termite fauna of the Ryukyu Archipelago.