Vol. 63, 2024

(update: 2024.12.27)

Morphological and Molecular Identification of Fungus-growing Termites (Isoptera, Termitidae, Macrotermitinae) in Thailand

Suksawat Ponpinij¹, Sasitorn Hasin², Tharnrat Kaewgrajang³, Itsarapong Voraphab⁴, and Mingkwan Nipitwattanaphon^5,*

¹Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand. E-mail: fagrswp@ku.ac.th (Ponpinij)
²Innovation of Environmental Management, College of Innovative Management, Valaya Alongkorn Rajabhat University under the Royal Patronage, Pathumthani, Thailand. E-mail: hasinsasi@gmail.com (Hasin)
³Department of Forest Biology, Faculty of Forestry, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand. E-mail: ffortrk@ku.ac.th (Kaewgrajang)
⁴Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, Bangkok, Thailand. E-mail: itsarapong.dnp@gmail.com (Voraphab)
⁵Department of Genetics, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand. *Correspondence: E-mail: mingkwan.n@ku.th (Nipitwattanaphon)

Received 3 May 2024 / Accepted 26 September 2024 / Published 27 December 2024
Communicated by Jen-Pan Huang

Fungus-growing termites (FGTs) play ecologically important roles as both decomposers and producers of termite mushrooms. However, they are difficult to research due to a lack of an updated identification key and the inability to locate type specimens. Molecular identification may be helpful, but this requires database information that is lacking for many species found in Thailand. In addition, some researchers use the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene as a barcoding gene, but others use cytochrome oxidase subunit II (COII). Thus, we offer detailed descriptions of nine FGT species commonly found in Thailand, together with the DNA sequences of both the COI and COII genes. The descriptions include those of both major and minor soldiers. The DNA sequences of the two genes confirm the morphological identifications. Our data will aid future FGT identification and facilitate research on the biodiversity, conservation, and sustainable use of FGTs and termite mushrooms.

Key words: Diversity, DNA barcoding, Morphology, COI, COII, Odontotermes

Citation: Ponpinij S, Hasin S, Kaewgrajang T, Voraphab I, Nipitwattanaphon M. 2024. Morphological and molecular identification of fungus-growing termites (Isoptera, Termitidae, Macrotermitinae) in Thailand. Zool Stud 63:52. doi:10.6620/ZS.2024.63-52.

Supplementary materials: Table S1丨 Table S2