Family Psammotermitidae · 沙白蚁科

About the family

The subfamily Psammotermitinae was established by Holmgren in 1911, and was elevated to family rank (Psammotermitidae) by a 2024 phylogenetic study(21). The type genus is Psammotermes Desneux, 1902; the family name is formed from the Greek psammos (sand) and termes, referring to its habit of dwelling in sandy soil. This checklist includes 2 genera and 18 species.

This family contains only two living genera, and the two genera contrast sharply in their ecological habits. Both lack a true worker caste (nest labor is performed by pseudergates). The soldiers are of the mandibulate type, with a sclerotized head capsule that is oval to slightly narrowed anteriorly; the frons bears a fontanelle, from which a longitudinal groove, either distinct or faint, extends toward the postclypeus; the tibial spur formula of the soldier's fore, mid and hind legs is 3:2:2. In the alates the pronotum is flat, the tarsi are four-segmented, the fontanelle is situated in the middle of the head, ocelli are present, and the antennae have 15-22 segments. Psammotermes is a typical desert termite, widely distributed from southern to West Africa, northeastern and northern Africa, through the Arabian Peninsula and Iran to northwestern India, and also occurring in Madagascar; it excavates its own nest chambers and tunnels in sandy soil, also occupies abandoned nests of other termites, and has extremely broad feeding habits, taking dry grass, leaf litter, animal dung and even wind-blown accumulations of organic debris. Prorhinotermes is an island-coastal type, widely distributed across the Indian Ocean islands, South Asia, Southeast Asia, southern China and Taiwan, northern Australia and the western Pacific islands, and also occurring in Central America and the Caribbean; its colonies are thought to disperse with ocean currents on driftwood, and it mostly inhabits damp, decaying wood near the intertidal zone, such as mangrove habitats (22). A few Psammotermes species damage crops and earth structures in arid regions. For example, Psammotermes hypostoma damages wooden structures and crops in North Africa and the Middle East (23), and Prorhinotermes simplex damages wooden buildings in Florida, United States (24).

This section is the standing account the site maintains for this rank and is updated on this page as the classification is revised; the checklist index is in the Checklist.