Description
This is a beautiful super rare
(only 4 in the entire Fossil Record) Termitaphidid or Termite Bug in
an authentic Dominican Amber Gemstone excavated in the La Toca amber
mine in late Autumn of 2008. Examined by paleoentomologists at the American
Museum of Natural History. This amber specimen amazingly also has a
termite head inclusion right next to the Termitaphidid! as well as lots
of termite frass.
No Termitaphidids are known
in Baltic amber, Dr. Poinar published on a Termitaphidid in Mexican
amber in 1992, Dr. Grimaldi and Dr. Engel published on the 1st known
Termitaphidids in Dominican amber in June of 2008.
DR8938
$6,750.00 No Reserve
From Novitates June 2008 ..." The most remarkable observation
is the presence of two T. avitinquilinus specimens preserved in an amber
piece with a worker termite of Mastotermes electrodominicus Krishna
and Grimaldi (Mastotermitidae) . It is highly likely that this termite
represents the host of the fossil species given that termitaphidids
occur in isolation from their associated termites probably very infrequently.
In fact, the specimen from Mexican amber (Poinar and Doyen, 1992) was
reported in a piece also containing two wingless termites (it was not
mentioned whether these were dealates or workers, and the termite genus
was not identified). Given the difficulty in locating modern termitaphidids
(which may be easily overlooked) and the scarcity of data available
for them, it has to be wondered whether additional, modern termitaphidid
species will eventually be discovered in the nests of other families
of termites. Thus far, no termitaphidids have been found in the nests
of the most basal living termite, Mastotermes darwiniensis Froggatt
from Australia (N. Lo, personal commun.), so if the association indeed
no longer exists then the fossilized association represents a dramatically
new one and raises questions regarding the fidelity of termitaphidids
with ‘‘higher’’ termite hosts. Poinar and Doyen
(1992) hypothesized that the termitaphidids were ancient and predate
the breakup of Pangaea 175 Ma. The rationale for an estimate of such
antiquity is based on what appears to be the extremely limited vagility
of these bugs, but yet they are circumtropical, so their ancestral distribution
was presumably fragmented by drifting continents. Most species of Termitaradus
are known from Central and South America (guianae [Morrison], jamaicensis
Myers, mexicanus [Silvestri], panamensis Meyers, and trinidadensis [Morrison]),
but with one species each in India, Australia, and Africa (annandalei
[Silvestri], australiensis [Mjo¨ rberg], and subafra Silvestri,
respectively). Despite such a distribution, we maintain that a pre-Pangaean
existence of termitaphidids is completely unrealistic, and that their
distribution can be dated almost certainly to a time 100 Ma or more
younger than that posited by Poinar and Doyen. The Termitaphididae probably
originated in the latest Cretaceous or Early Tertiary because, first,
the Pentatomomorpha (to which the Aradoidea is the sister group) appears
to have originated in either the latest Jurassic or earliest Cretaceous
(Grimaldi and Engel, 2005). For example, the earliest and most primitive
aradoid is Archaearadus burmensis Heiss and Grimaldi in mid-Cretaceous
amber fromMyanmar (Heiss and Grimaldi, 2001), so it is inconceivable
that such a specialized group of pentatomomorphans would far predate
the age of the infraorder. Second, the earliest fossil termites occur
in the Barremian (Engel et al., 2007a), and termites as a whole did
not originate until the latest Jurassic or earliest Cretaceous (Grimaldi
and Engel, 2005). Indeed, the higher termites, upon which modern termitaphidids
specialize, did not radiate until the Tertiary (Grimaldi and Engel,
2005; Engel et al., 2007a, 2007b). All of this evidence suggests that
diversification of Termitaphididae was largely Tertiary, and in such
case their circumtropical distribution could be a result of dispersion
during globally tropical and subtropical conditions during the Eocene,
as is known for myriad other insect groups (Grimaldi and Engel, 2005).
Perhaps most significantly, there are indications that termitaphidids
phylogenetically may be highly derived members of the Aradidae. Termitaphidids
have the same uniquely modified maxillary and mandibular
stylets that are coiled within the head capsule that are characteristic
of Aradidae (this is even seen in fossil M3515A, in which the external
cuticle is translucent: fig. 3). Aradids have repeatedly become brachypterous
and apterous, and in the subfamilies Mezirinae and Carventinae in particular
many species are wholly apterous. Mezirinae and 8 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES
NO. 3619 Termitaphididae also share the derived feature of a rostral
base situated within a closed atrium (fig. 4C), although four mezirine
genera have an open atrium (Chiastoplonia China, Daulocoris Usinger
and Matsuda, Euchelonocoris Hoberlandt, and Pseudomezira
Heiss), and four Carventinae genera have a closed atrium (Apteraradus
Drake, Libiocoris Kormilev, eocarventus Usinger and Matsuda, and Notoplocaptera
Usinger and Matsuda). Also, the seventh abdominal ventrite in female
termitaphidids and Mezirinae is divided into hemiventrites. Many mezirines
have lateral lobes on the pronotum and/or abdomen that extend beyond
the body, such as Chlonocoris Usinger and Matsuda, Dysodiellus Hoberlandt,
Oroessa Usinger, and Matsuda, and Rossius Usinger and Matsuda (Usinger
and Matsuda, 1959).
Many of these even have small setigerous tubercles on the dorsal surface
of the body and the lateral margins, much like the lobules and marginal
setae (e.g., fig. 5B) of termitaphidids. Furthermore, the arrangement
of segments within tagmata of termitaphidids is essentially the same
as that of apterous genera of Mezirinae and Carventinae (E. Heiss, personal
commun., 2007). Lastly, the structure of the male genital capsules in
some mezirines and in termitaphidids is similar. Circumstantial biological
evidence for a termitaphidid-mezirine relationship lies in the fact
that several mezirine aradids are apparently facultative inquilines
in the colonies of termites, and one species (Aspisocorus termitophilus
Kormilev, from southwest Australia) is morphologically specialized and
thus appears to be an obligate inquiline in the nests of a ‘‘higher’’
termite, Occasitermes
occasus (Silvestri) (Isoptera: Termitidae: Nasutitermitinae) (Kormilev,
1967; Monteith, 1997). Aspisocoris has distinctively reduced compound
eyes and hemelytra (such reduction is taken to an extreme in termitaphidids,
where they are lost altogether), pale coloration, and small size. Other
putative termitophiles in Mezirinae are not morphologically specialized
and have also been found away from termites under decaying bark. Interestingly,
though, those facultative inquilines occur in the nests of primitive
termites such as Zootermopsis (e.g., Mezira reducta Van Duzee) or Archotermopsis
(e.g., Pseudomezira termitophila [Kormilev]), both of
the basal family Termopsidae. The presently documented hosts of modern
termitaphidids are exclusively among the higher termites (Rhinotermitidae
and Termitidae). Thus, the possibility should be considered that termitaphidids
are highly specialized aradids, in or near the Mezirinae or Carventinae.
In such a scenario, and with the exception of the fossilized host association
we report here, the termite host associations of
modern aradioids roughly reflect a phylogenetic pattern: those mezirines
(presumably basal to termitaphidids) facultatively occur in colonies
of Termopsidae (one species obligately with a termitid), and the more
derived and younger termitaphidids subsist in colonies of higher termites
of the Rhinotermitidae and Termitidae. There is even divergence between
the two main lineages of termitaphidids: Termitaphis is known from Termitidae,
and
this genus is clearly the sister group to the more specialized, flattened,
laminate, and monophyletic Termitaradus, which live with Rhinotermitidae.
Unfortunately, the only phylogenetic hypotheses for Aradidae are slim
and superficial, using only 15–25 characters and treating subfamilies
as terminal taxa (Va´sa´ rhely,
1987; Grozeva and Kerzhner, 1992). The monophyly of these subfamilies
cannot be assumed. So, confronting a putative mezirinetermitaphidid
relationship must await a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis, but our
ignorance is far more profound that this. The last extant termitaphidid
to have been described was by Myers (1932), even though vast expanses
of forests from the Andean and Amazonian regions, the Congo Basin, and
the
IndoPacific are unexplored. While it is intriguing to consider how such
intimate symbiosis as that between termitaphidids and termites could
be evolving for much of the Tertiary, even more fundamental is what
alliances have yet to be discovered. "
This beautiful authentic Dominican Amber gemstone is offered here with
a complete satisfaction guarantee, if you are not satisfied with your
purchase you can return any specimen within 14 days for a full refund.
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a beautiful super rare (only 4 in the entire Fossil Record) Termitaphidid or Termite Bug
