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Extreme morphological divergence: phylogenetic position of a termite ectoparasite

     Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803

Daniel A. Henk

     Biology Department, Duke University, Box 90338, Durham, North Carolina 27708

Kevin G. Jones

     Department of Biology, University of Virginia at Wise, Wise, Virginia 24293

Species of Termitaria are lesion-forming ectoparasites occurring worldwide on a diverse group of termites. The reduced thallus consists of a basal cell layer from which haustorial cells penetrate the termite and a darkly pigmented sporodochium. One species, Termitaria snyderi, has been the subject of several morphological studies, but its phylogenetic position has remained enigmatic. Here we provide evidence of a close relationship between T. snyderi and the morphologically distinct ascomycetes, Kathistes analemmoides and K. calyculata, based on phylogenetic analysis of molecular characters derived from portions of the nuclear-encoded small-subunit ribosomal RNA gene (ssu rDNA) and supplemental evidence from the ß-tubulin gene. Trees were derived using parsimony and maximum-likelihood criteria. Bayesian analysis and parsimony bootstrap methods were used to assess support for the tree nodes.

Key words: asexual fungi, conidial fungi, insect-associated fungi, Isoptera, mitosporic fungi, ssu rDNA, Termitaria