Genus Comatermes · 毛白蚁属

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

Monotypic genus; the alate venation resembles Paraneotermes and Ceratokalotermes, but the head and pronotum bear very long, fine, slightly wavy setae; the soldier differs from Ceratokalotermes in that the latter has two distinct lobes on the anterior dorsum of the head and a raised, deeply concave pronotal anterior margin, and from Paraneotermes in the latter's short, strong mandibles.

Alate

Dark brown; head and pronotum with very long, fine, slightly wavy setae; eyes small, diameter 0.29–0.31 mm, ocelli touching the compound eyes; antennae 14-segmented; posterior margin of the first and second marginal teeth of the left mandible equal in length to the anterior margin of the third marginal tooth; pronotum wider than the head; radial sector with 9–10 branches; media less sclerotised than the radial sector, with many cross-veins between it and the radial sector; arolium present.

Soldier

Head usually long, sometimes with long-headed and short-headed forms in the same species; head dorsoventrally flattened; frons concave in the middle, anterior part concave, anterior dorsum with two weak swellings; eyes colourless; antennae 13–14-segmented, the third segment unspecialised and equal to the second; mandibles strong, relatively short for the head length; pronotum as wide as the head, anterior margin shallowly and broadly concave; femora inflated.

Sources: Krishna K. 1961. A generic revision and phylogenetic study of the family Kalotermitidae (Isoptera). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 122: 303–408., pp. 341–343 This text is an adaptation, not a verbatim transcription of the original.