Publications by authors named "Reginaldo Constantino"

Article Synopsis
  • - The classification of termites, particularly the diverse Neoisoptera group, needs significant updates due to many incorrectly grouped taxa; researchers propose a new classification based on genomic analyses.
  • - The study identifies seven monophyletic family lineages within Neoisoptera and 18 subfamily lineages in the species-rich Termitidae, including several new subfamilies and the revival of some older ones.
  • - The new classification method is built on clear monophyletic lineages, which enhances its stability and adaptability for future studies, allowing it to incorporate yet-to-be-discovered species easily.
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Termites comprise a relatively small group of insects, with 3176 known species (2976 living and 200 fossil) (Constantino 2020). They include, however, very important urban and agricultural pests, and also major decomposers of plant matter in terrestrial ecosystems, especially in the tropics. For instance, the annual economic impact of a single invasive termite species, Coptotermes formosanus, was estimated as US$11 billion in the United States in 1999 (Su 2002), placing it among the most important insect pests in the world.

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A revised, geo-referenced, and cross-referenced list of 270 termite type localities in South America is presented. A total of 543 nominal species-group extant taxa are listed, 442 of them valid and 97 synonyms. The type-locality comprising the greatest number of nominal taxa in South America is Kartabo, Guyana (A.

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Article Synopsis
  • * For litter-feeding termites, Firmicutes was the most abundant phylum, while humus feeders predominantly hosted Proteobacteria, and wood feeders showed a mix of Firmicutes and Spirochaetes.
  • * All examined termite subfamilies exhibited a similar functional profile in their gut microbiota, specializing in breaking down cellulose and chitin, which reveals important partnerships for utilizing hard-to-digest energy sources.
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Czerwinski (1901) (sometimes spelled Tscherwinsky) described four new termite taxa in a publication about the termite collection of the former Zoological Cabinet of the Imperial Warsaw University (currently Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, MZPW): Eutermes burmeisteri and Eutermes rippertii iheringi from southern Brazil, Eutermes canariensis from the Canary Islands, and Eutermes nasonovi from Madagascar.

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Termites are the major decomposers of lignocellulosic biomass on Earth and are commonly considered as biological reactor models for lignocellulose degradation. Despite their biotechnological potential, few studies have focused on the morphophysiological aspects of the termite digestive system. We therefore analyze the morphology, ultrastructure and gut luminal pH of the digestive system in workers of the litter-feeding termite Cornitermes cumulans (Blattodea: Termitidae).

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The taxonomy of the neotropical termite genus Diversitermes Holmgren 1912 is revised. Three species are recognized as valid: D. castaniceps (Holmgren 1910), D.

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Syntermes emersoni Grassé & Noirot 1949 is an available name of uncertain taxonomic status. It was published in a paper about the nest and biology of the African termite Sphaerotermes sphaerothorax (Sjöstedt 1911), with a brief description and a few illustrations (Grassé & Noirot 1949). The description is limited to the following words: "les mandibles du Syntermes emersoni n.

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The gut microbiota of termites allows them to thrive on a variety of different materials such as wood, litter, and soil. For that reason, they play important roles in the decomposition of biomass in diverse biomes. This function is essential in the savanna, where litter-feeding termites are one of the few invertebrates active during the dry season.

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The taxonomy of Anhangatermes Constantino 1990 is revised. Four new species are described: Anhangatermes anhanguera, sp. n.

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Species delimitation and identification can be arduous for taxa whose morphologic characters are easily confused, which can hamper global biodiversity assessments and pest species management. Exploratory methods of species delimitation that use DNA sequence as their primary information source to establish group membership and estimate putative species boundaries are useful approaches, complementary to traditional taxonomy. Termites of the genus Nasutitermes make interesting models for the application of such methods.

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Termites inhabit tropical and subtropical areas where they contribute to structure and composition of soils by efficiently degrading biomass with aid of resident gut microbiota. In this study, culture-independent molecular analysis was performed based on bacterial and archaeal 16S rRNA clone libraries to describe the gut microbial communities within Cornitermes cumulans, a South American litter-feeding termite. Our data reveal extensive bacterial diversity, mainly composed of organisms from the phyla Spirochaetes, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Fibrobacteres.

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Background: The description of new hydrolytic enzymes is an important step in the development of techniques which use lignocellulosic materials as a starting point for fuel production. Sugarcane bagasse, which is subjected to pre-treatment, hydrolysis and fermentation for the production of ethanol in several test refineries, is the most promising source of raw material for the production of second generation renewable fuels in Brazil. One problem when screening hydrolytic activities is that the activity against commercial substrates, such as carboxymethylcellulose, does not always correspond to the activity against the natural lignocellulosic material.

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The black soldier-fly (Hermetia illucens) is a generalist detritivore which is commonly present in corpses in later stages of decomposition and may be useful in forensic entomology. This paper describes the estimation of the postmortem interval (PMI) based on the life cycle of the black soldier-fly in a case in northern Brazil. A male child was abducted from his home and 42 days later his corpse was found in an advanced stage of decay.

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The termite fauna of a plantation of Eucaliptus urophylla S.T. Blake (Myrtales: Mytaceae) in Buritis, Minas Gerais, was manually sampled in 12 transects.

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The first case of application of forensic entomology in the Brazilian Amazonia is described. The corpses of 26 men were found in the rainforest in Rondonia State, Brazil. Fly larvae collected on the bodies during autopsy were identified as Paralucilia fulvinota (Diptera, Calliphoridae).

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