Record of Amitermes (Blattodea, Termitidae) Species in Togo West Africa

: This study combined morphological traits with morphometric measurements to identify Amitermes species collected inside transects laid in three parks: Fosse aux Lions, Galangashie and Fazao Malfakassa. Samples were grouped by morphospecies and measurements of body parts (length/width of head, mandible, pronotum, gula and hind tibia) were taken. Four Amitermes species were identified: Amitermes evuncifer, A. guineensis, A. spinifer and A. truncatidens . Among the four species, A. guineensis had the longest head (1.225±0.031mm) while Amitermes spinifer had the shortest (0.933±0.018mm) one.


Introduction
In most of the African countries, termites systematic is hampered by the confusion in the identification of many species [1][2][3][4].One of the most common way to identify termites is the comparison of samples with reference species which most of the time are not correctly identified.Several reference works done by famous taxonomists [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] are also used in the identification of termite.Although these reference works were published several decades ago, they are actually useful and are still widely used by many researchers for termite's identification.
Most of the reference works combine morphological traits (shape, color of different part of the body) and morphometric measurements (length, width and depth of certain part of the body of termites).For Amitermes species of African and Arabian countries, these features were deeply described and illustrated by Sands [11].In this study, both morphological features and morphometric measurements were used to sort out Amitermes species collected in central and northern part of Togo.

Study sites
Termites were collected from three different parks (Figure 1) including: Fosse aux lions (10°46' -10°49'N and 0° 11' -0°14'E), Galangashie (10°19' -20°28'N and 0°14' -0°27'E) both located in the northern part of Togo, and Fazao-Malfakassa (8°20' -9°35'N and 0°35' -1°02'E) located in the centre of the country.The first two parks (Fosse aux lions and Galangashi) are characterized by a sudanian tropical climate with a long dry season (November to May) and a long raining season (June to October).In these two parks, the mean temperatures range from 29 ± 2°C during the raining season and 30 ± 3°C during dry season.The annual rainfall is 986 mm and the landscape is a shrubby savanna.Fazao-Malfakassa is characterized by a semi-humid tropical climate with a long rainy season (from April to October) and a long dry season (from November to March).The mean temperatures range from 27,5 ± 1,5°C during dry season and 27 ± 2°C during rainy season.The annual rainfall is 120mm and the landscapes is composed of dry forests, gallery forests, shrubby savanna and fallows.

Termites sampling
Belt transects were used to sample termites in each of the identified landscape found in the three study areas.The standard protocol [12] adapted to the savanna ecosystem [13][14] was used in our study.A total of 81 transects were laid in three mentioned parks and surrounding fallows.Each transect of 100 × 5 m was divided into 20 sampling units of 5 × 2 m which were sampled for 15 minutes [15][16].Termite were searched within the frame of each sampling unit inside mounds, litter, wood, and grasses on trees by a well-trained collector.After this searching on the surface, termites were also searched throughout eight soil scrapes of 15 × 15 × 10 m [15][16].Sampled termites were kept in 95% ethanol inside labeled vials and brought to the laboratory for identification.

Termites identification
Morphological traits of soldier including number of antennal segments, shape of mandibles and the position of the mandible tooth were used to sort out Amitermes species according to Sands [11].Measurements were made with a stereomicroscope (Leica EZ4) equipped with an integrated camera.Voucher specimen are conserved in the "Laboratoire d'Entomologie" of the University of Lomé (Togo).
Factorial discriminant analysis (using morphometric data) was used to separate species with close measurements.

Result of factorial discriminant analysis
Although A. evuncifer and A. truncatidens measurements were close (Table 1 and 4) the factorial discrimant analysis showed that the are separate species (Figure 6), as well as the other two spcies (A.guineensis and A. spinifer).

Discussion
All the representative caste (Imago, soldiers and workers) of the four Amitermes species were already described [11].In our study, the ranges and means of the measurements of soldiers fall within the ranges and means of respective species described by Sands [11].Amitermes spinifer had the shorter and the smaller head of all while A. guineensis had the longer and the larger one.

Conclusion
Based on the measurements of parts of the heads and also the shape of mandible, we believe that there are at least four different species of Amitermes species in Togo.This study was the first in Togo to present Amitermes species with their respective measurements and pictures.It could be used as illustrated reference work for future taxonomic researches.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Map of Togo with prospected parks

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. The head of Amitermes evuncifer soldier in dorsal view (left), lateral view (middle) and ventral view (right).

Figure 5 .
Figure 5.The head of Amitermes spinifer soldier in dorsal view (left), lateral view (middle) and ventral view (right).

Figure 5 .
Figure 5.The head of Amitermes truncatidens soldier in dorsal view (left), lateral view (middle) and ventral view (right).

Table 4 .
The measurements (mm) of the soldiers of Amitermes truncatidens.