Biosystematics of Angulitermes dehraensis in Northwestern Indomalayan region by integrating morphometrics and distributional data with DNA barcoding

Lu Xiuhua^1*Zhang Xiaoxia²Maid Zaman^3*Rashid Azad³

• ¹1. Inner Mongolia Preschool Education College for the Nationalities, Ordos, Inner Mongolia 017000, China, Ordos, China
• ²Jungar Banner Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, 017100, China, Ordos, China
• ³Department of Entomology, The University of Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Termites are eusocial and economically important insects which are found in the world’s tropical regions as a harmful or beneficial organisms. They play dual role, both as pests damaging crops and urban structure, and as an ecological engineers sustaining ecosystem. Pakistan is a part of Indomalayan realm hosting diverse flora and fauna including termites, however status (diversity, distribution, feeding hosts, pest and non pest) of the genus Angulitermes in the northwestern region (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan) has been largely neglected. Termite cultures were collected from diverse ecosystems, cleaned, and preserved in alcohol filled vials for subsequent morphometric identification and DNA barcoding. Coordinates with relevant ecological data was also recorded. Soldiers were used for capturing refined images and morphometric identification through available literature, which resulted as a Angulitermes dehraensis and a new locality record. A revised and updated world’s species list for the genus was made along with the distribution map of this study via ArcGIS. Identified representative soldier’s leg was processed for mtDNA extraction followed by amplification and sequencing. Received sequence was subjected to BLASTn search and only top fifteen sequences via BLASTn search and then via manual search for taxon Angulitermes were retrieved from the GenBank. Aligned and trimmed sequences were processed for Phylogenetic trees (Neighbor-Joining and Maximum-Likelihood) construction and validation of understudy species sequence analogy. Novel sequence was submitted to GenBank for accession number. Based on the available and recorded feeding host substrate data, it is a pest species which needs management.