''Termitaradus avitinquilinus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of termite bug in the family

Termitaphididae Termitaphididae, occasionally called termite bugs, is a small tropicopolitan family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other ...

known from several possibly

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

fossils found in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. ''T. avitinquilinus'' is the first species in the genus '' Termitaradus'' to have been described from fossils found in

Dominican amber Dominican amber is amber from the Dominican Republic derived from resin of the extinct tree '' Hymenaea protera''. Dominican amber differentiates itself from Baltic amber by being nearly always transparent, and it has a higher number of fossil in ...

and is one of four species from New World amber, the others being ''

Termitaradus protera ''Termitaradus protera'' is an extinct species of termite bug in the family Termitaphididae known from several Late Oligocene to Early Miocene fossils found in Mexico. ''T. protera'' is the only species in the extant genus '' Termitaradus' ...

'', ''

Termitaradus dominicanus ''Termitaradus '' is a small cosmopolitan distribution, tropicopolitan genus of Hemiptera, true bugs placed in the Family (biology), family Termitaphididae. As is typical for the family, living members of ''Termitaradus '' are small, being an av ...

'' and ''

Termitaradus mitnicki ''Termitaradus mitnicki'' is an extinct species of Hemiptera, true bug in the family Termitaphididae known only from early Miocene Burdigalian stage Dominican amber deposits on the island of Hispaniola. The species is known from the holotype, n ...

''.

History and classification

''Termitaradus avitinquilinus'' is known from a group of three fossil insects which are inclusions in transparent chunks of

. The amber was produced by the extinct '' Hymenaea protera'', which formerly grew on

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

, across northern South America and up to southern Mexico. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

amber specimen, DR-14-425, is currently housed in the amber fossil collection of the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, while the two paratype specimens are in the private Morone amber collection in

Turin, Italy Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. The

fossil is composed of a complete adult individual that was collected from an unidentified amber mine in fossil-bearing rocks in the Cordillera Septentrional mountains of northern

. The amber dates from at least the

Burdigalian The Burdigalian is, in the geologic timescale, an age (geology), age or stage (stratigraphy), stage in the early Miocene. It spans the time between 20.43 ± 0.05 annum, Ma and 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma (million years ago). Preceded by the Aquitanian (sta ...

stage of the Miocene, based on studying the associated fossil

foraminifera Foraminifera ( ; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are unicellular organism, single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class (biology), class of Rhizarian protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell bio ...

and may be as old as the Middle Eocene, based on the associated fossil coccoliths. This age range is due to the host rock being secondary deposits for the amber and the Miocene the age range is only the youngest that it might be. The fossil was examined by paleoentomologists David Grimaldi and Michael S. Engel, both of the

. Grimaldi and Engel's 2008 type description of the new species was published in the

natural sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

journal ''

American Museum Novitates ''American Museum Novitates'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Museum of Natural History. It was established in 1921. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2013 impact factor The impact ...

''. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''avitinquilinus'' from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word "avitus" meaning ''ancestral'' and the word"inquilinus" which translates to ''lodger''. The two paratype specimens are preserved in a single piece of amber in close association with a worker caste '' Mastotermes electrodominicus'' termite. It was suggested by Grimaldi and Engel that ''T. avitinquilinus'' cohabited with ''M. electrodominicus''. Modern termite bugs live in the nests of rhinotermitid termites, and this is the first and only known association of termite bugs and ''Mastotermes'' termites.

Description

The ''Termitaradus avitinquilinus''

is a female with a total length of and a width of , which is close to the size range seen in living ''Termitaradus'' species. The overall coloration of ''T. avitinquilinus'' is a reddish brown which is lighter in tone along the body margin and darkening towards the body center. The head has small antennae that are composed of four antennomeres. ''T. avitinquilinus'' has each side of the body is segmented into fourteen distinct lobes. Each of the lobes is divided into between four and possibly as much fifteen lobules with triangular to lance shaped setae along the edges of the insect. While some other ''Termitaradus'' species have a grouping of thick

setae In biology, setae (; seta ; ) are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Depending partly on their form and function, protostome setae may be called macrotrichia, chaetae ...

in a comb like structure on the

tibia The tibia (; : tibiae or tibias), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two Leg bones, bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outsi ...

of the front most leg, this structure is absent in 'T. ''. It has been suggested these grouping of setae may be grooming combs in the living species. ''T. avitinquilinus'' is the shortest species of ''Termitaradus'', with the two other Dominican amber species being longer. ''T. mitnicki'' is longer at and ''T. dominicanus'' is the longest Dominican amber species at long. The largest amber species, and largest species in the genus, is ''T. protera'' at long.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7702875 Aradoidea Miocene insects Fossil taxa described in 2008 Prehistoric insects of the Caribbean Taxa named by Michael S. Engel