Psammotermes allocerus Silvestri, 1908 is the only described species representing the genus Psammotermes Desneux, 1902 in Southern Africa. The large geographical range of this subterranean termite covers both summer and winter rainfall regimes. Deadwood is the preferred food when available, but in more arid habitats, both live and dead grasses form the major dietary component. Along the Namib Desert margins, the species’ local...

Recently diverged or diverging populations can offer unobstructed insights into early barriers to gene flow during the initial stages of speciation. The current study utilised a novel insect system (order Mantophasmatodea) to shed light on the early drivers of speciation. The members of this group have limited dispersal abilities, small allopatric distributions and strong habitat associations in the Cape Floristic Region biodi...

Evolutionary relationships in the widely distributed velvet worm P eripatopsis balfouri sensu lato species complex were examined using DNA sequence data, gross and SEM morphology. Sequence data were generated for the COI mt DNA and the 18S rRNA loci and analysed using a B ayesian inference approach, maximum likelihood and maximum parsimony. Phylogenetic analyses of the combined DNA sequence data revealed that P eripatopsis cla...