Efficient capture of natural history data reveals prey conservatism of cryptic termite predators.

Stenophagy, specialization of a clade on a narrow range of taxa, has not been well studied in speciose clades of predators, principally due to the difficulty of obtaining adequate natural history data. The pantropical Salyavatinae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae; 17 genera, 107 species) contains members with enigmatic morphology and specialized behavior for feeding on termites. All Salyavatinae are suspected specialist termite predators; however, existing observations are limited to seven species. Prior analyses indicate that Salyavatinae may be paraphyletic with respect to another subfamily, Sphaeridopinae, also hypothesized to feed on termites. A molecular phylogeny of these putative termite assassins is here constructed using seven loci from 28 species in nine genera and is used in a dating analysis to shed light on the timing of Neotropical colonization by this primarily Old World clade. DNA extracted from gut contents of 50 individuals was assayed using PCR with prey-specific primers.Molecular assays, along with recent photographs and observations, provide substantial evidence that this clade feeds specifically upon termites, documenting 28 new individual associations. Our phylogeny supports a sister group relationship of the Neotropical genus Salyavata with Sphaeridopinae. Termite association data combined with our phylogeny provide evidence of previously unknown prey conservatism among clades of one of the most diverse groups of specialist termite predators.