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Different faces, same attitudes: behavioral mimicry and description of a new termitophilous species of the remarkable rove beetle genus Thyreoxenus (Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae, Corotocini) from Brazil with notes on post-imaginal growth

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Abstract

Among the termite-associated fauna, rove beetles of the subfamily Aleocharinae are distinguished by exhibiting the majority of convergent evolutions to this lifestyle. This phenomenon known as termitophily brings many advantages, including the care of nestmates and the exploitation of resources. While some mechanisms that ensure the integration of the termitophiles into the colony are well known, such as chemical mimicry, others remain unclear. In this article, we discuss the importance of termitophile behavior for the stability of interactions within termite colonies. We address behavioral mimicry as an important integration mechanism between termitophiles and termites. We compare both termitophile’s and termite’s behavioral repertoires and found no significant differences between them, suggesting that social parasites can mislead their host through their behavior in order to exploit the colony and to keep positive interactions with their hosts. In addition, we describe a new species of termitophile rove beetle from a highland humid forest in northeastern Brazil: Thyreoxenus alakazam sp. nov., with detailed illustrations and comments on post-imaginal growth in the context of our hypothesis of the post-imago phenotype, known as stenogastry, as a recapitulation of ancestral conditions in physogastric rove beetles.

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  • 06 November 2022

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Acknowledgements

We thank Antônia M. D. Pires, Pedro A. Pires Silva, and Júlia M. A. Pimentel for their help during fieldwork. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for the extremely careful reading and suggestions, which undoubtedly improved a lot the manuscript. The present study was partially financed by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001 and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq). CPS is funded under Grant 88887.639836/2021-00; BZ, 88882.377147/2019-01 and IE, 14584/2018-0.

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  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sistemática, Taxonomia Animal e Biodiversidade, Laboratório de Coleoptera, Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, 04263-000, São Paulo, Brazil

    Carlos M. Pires-Silva & Bruno Zilberman

  2. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicobiologia, Laboratório de Biologia Comportamental, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Norte, 59078-970, Natal, Brazil

    Igor Eloi

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Supplementary file1 (MP4 23971 KB) Online Resource 1. Individual of Thyreoxenus alakazam Pires-Silva, Zilberman and Eloi sp. nov. dropping a grayish droplet (i.e., exudate) on the body of a termite worker. Note that no subsequent actions were recorded.

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Pires-Silva, C.M., Zilberman, B. & Eloi, I. Different faces, same attitudes: behavioral mimicry and description of a new termitophilous species of the remarkable rove beetle genus Thyreoxenus (Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae, Corotocini) from Brazil with notes on post-imaginal growth. Sci Nat 109, 53 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-022-01820-x

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