Morphometrics, Distribution, and DNA Barcoding: An Integrative Identification Approach to the Genus Odontotermes (Termitidae: Blattodea) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Simple Summary: Termites are social insects that invade plantations, agricultural crops, and man-made structures throughout the world. The districts Buner, Haripur, and Swabi belong to different agro-ecological zones and a neglected area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan: Oriental region) for work on the distribution and identity of termites. Termites were collected and identified morphologically and with DNA barcoding of the COII region. Odontotermes assmuthi, Odontotermes obesus, Odontotermes parvidens, and Odontotermes horai were identified, and a key to the genus Odontotermes of the area was made along with a distribution map. The identified species were found feeding on different forage substrates. Four novel COII sequences were submitted to GenBank. The neglected area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan: Oriental region), consisting of Buner, Haripur, and Swabi districts, were surveyed for termites during the summer of 2016–2019 for identification and assessment of the distribution of colonies. Collections were made either directly from visible galleries or using traps with ethanol. Soldiers were used for morphometric identification and DNA extraction. Morphometric identification was carried out based on the available literature through measurements of 20 characters/indices and evaluating species differences statistically. Based on these characteristics, we generated a key and a distribution map of the genus Odontotermes for the study area. This is the first record of Odontotermes assmuthi and Odontotermes obesus in these three districts, the first record of Odontotermes parvidens for the Buner and Swabi districts, and the first record of Odontotermes horai for Haripur. We subsequently used barcoding of the mtDNA COII to verify species assignments of colonies and for phylogenetic analyses using Neighbor-Joining and Maximum Likelihood analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]