Genus Ahamitermes · 无钩白蚁属

Morphology

The descriptions below are an adaptation of the original genus-level accounts; terms follow the meaning of the source, and the original is not transcribed verbatim.

Diagnostic characters

Small, of the Hamitermes type. Soldier mandibles toothless (the original description says “without a median tooth”), which distinguishes it from Hamitermes s. str. (mandibles with well-developed teeth) and Microcerotermes (inner margin of the mandibles largely finely serrate); Hill's (1942: 310) subgeneric key additionally defines this group by “soldier mandibles lacking or with reduced teeth” and “terminal segment of the alate maxillary palp swollen”. Hill (1942: 308) noted that the genus was originally established on species with toothless soldier mandibles, the alate characters being added later from related species. All species live in the nests of Coptotermes.

Soldier

Head small, longer than wide, with a rounded posterior margin; clypeus small; labrum long and wide, narrowed towards the apex, which is rounded; mandibles short and robust, separated from each other, without a median tooth; antennae very short, 12-segmented; pronotum wide, only its anterior margin slightly ridge-like. Soldier of A. nidicola: body white, head and prothorax pale yellow, mandibles reddish brown; head small, slightly narrowed anteriorly, longer than wide, with a rounded posterior margin; basal segment of the clypeus very short and yellow, the apical segment white; labrum large and wide, narrowed at the sides, rounded apically and hairy; mandibles very short and robust, broad at the base, curved and completely toothless (only the inner side of the left mandible bears two extremely minute, almost invisible “teeth”); antennae pale yellow, segment 2 about half as long and half as wide as segment 1, segment 3 extremely short; pronotum wide, its anterior margin slightly ridge-like, the sides rounded and narrowed towards the base; legs rather short, the femora relatively thick, the tarsi slender. Measurements (A. nidicola, mm): body length including mandibles 4.4, head length including mandibles 1.56, head length excluding mandibles 1.31, head width 0.87, pronotum length 0.29 and width 0.72, abdominal width 1.4.

Alate

Terminal segment of the maxillary palp swollen, the alate character by which Hill (1942: 310) separates this group from Hamitermes s. str.; apart from this, the original description gives no complete account of the alate.

Sources: Mjöberg, E. 1920. Results of Dr. E. Mjöberg's Swedish Scientific Expeditions to Australia 1910–1913. 19. Isoptera. Arkiv för Zoologi 12 (15): 1–128., p. 89; Hill, G. F. 1942. Termites (Isoptera) from the Australian Region. NLA digitised copy nla.obj-911352544, 509 pp., pp. 308–310 This text is an adaptation, not a verbatim transcription of the original.