Genus Grigiotermes · 灰白蚁属
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Distribution map
About the genus
This genus belongs to the family Termitidae 白蚁科, in the subfamily Apicotermitinae 尖白蚁亚科; the site records 2 species.
Type species: Grigiotermes hageni.
This page includes a distribution map for the genus (GBIF records aggregated on a 1° grid); open a species entry to see its type locality, distribution, and references.
Etymology
Etymology uncertain; -termes from Latin termes.
The etymologies in this section are analytical breakdowns; the roots follow Brown (1956).
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
Worker large (head width over 0.9 mm), foregut P1 extremely broad, the food bolus following a visible serpentine path within it, on which basis it is distinguished from the other South American soldierless genera. Closely related to Patawatermes, but the enteric valve has 6 spiny sclerotised plates.
Worker
Head pale yellow, rounded, covered with a variable number of small hairs and 50–100 long setae; fontanelle small, almost invisible; fore tibia slender; the distal half of the abdomen subconical, the gut elongate. Enteric valve within a short extension of the paunch, armature of 6 spiny sclerotised plates; the anterior part of the enteric valve made up of 6 oval pads, each with about 100 scale-like lobules. Midgut junction forming a small spherical knob over the hindgut, slightly prolonged into a short distinct mixed segment; foregut P1 extremely broad.
Alate
Sclerotised parts dark brown, covered with thousands of small hairs; head with about 100 scattered long setae; compound eyes and ocelli large; fontanelle small to medium, at the level of the compound eyes; pronotum elongate, covered with dozens of long setae; posterior margins of the meso- and metanota slightly concave, the corners strongly rounded.
Sources: Bourguignon T.; Scheffrahn R. H.; Nagy Z. T.; Sonet G.; Host B.; Roisin Y. 2016. Towards a revision of the Neotropical soldierless termites (Isoptera: Termitidae): redescription of the genus Grigiotermes Mathews and description of five new genera. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 176: 15-35. https://doi.org/10.1111/zoj.12305, Description › Worker（p. 18）；Description › Imago（p. 18）；Diagnosis（p. 19）; Carrijo T. F.; Castro D.; Wang M.; Constantini J. P.; Bourguignon T.; Cancello E. M.; Scheffrahn R. H. 2023. Diminishing the taxonomic gap in the neotropical soldierless termites: descriptions of four new genera and a new Anoplotermes species (Isoptera, Termitidae, Apicotermitinae). ZooKeys 1167: 317-352. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1167.100001, Key to neotropical Apicotermitinae genera based on the worker caste, couplet 19 (Grigiotermes 分支) This text is an adaptation, not a verbatim transcription of the original.
Species (2)
Parent level: Checklist index · Apicotermitinae 尖白蚁亚科 · Data & downloads