Genus Hospitalitermes · 须白蚁属

Fauna Sinica account

The account below is a reorganized and rewritten adaptation of the genus-level description in Fauna Sinica, Insecta Vol. 17, Isoptera (2000) (genus-level account reorganised and rewritten from the Hospitalitermes section of the original book); the source keys and measurement tables are not reproduced here.

Morphology

Key characters

Soldier dark in colour; nasus slender, deeply concave where it meets the head; mandibles reduced while the pointed tips are very long; antennae 14-segmented with the third segment not shorter than the fourth; anterior part of the pronotum raised; legs very long; alate entirely dark.

Soldier

Soldier mostly dark in colour. Head with a rather slender nasus, markedly concave where the nasus meets the head capsule. Mandibles much reduced, only a very small mandibular base remaining, but the pointed tips very long, their surface smooth and toothless. Antennae 14-segmented, the third segment equal to or slightly longer than the fourth. Anterior part of the pronotum raised. Legs very long, their segments slender.

Alate

Alate dark in both body and wings. Head broadly oval; postclypeus less than half as long as wide; frons triangularly depressed behind the postclypeus. Forewing and hindwing scales similar in size; radius absent; media closely appressed to the cubitus. Antennae 15-segmented, the third segment about twice as long as the second.

Distribution

Oriental region; a group of tropical rainforest and monsoon forest, recorded from southern China.

Summary

Hospitalitermes soldiers are dark, with a slender nasus that is deeply impressed where it joins the head. The mandibles are vestigial but bear very long, toothless points, antennae are 14-segmented with the third segment equal to or longer than the fourth, and the pronotum is raised in front. The legs are very long. Alates are dark in body and wings, with a broad oval head and 15-segmented antennae. The genus is Oriental.

Sources cited: Huang Fusheng, Zhu Shimo, Ping Zhengming, Wang Zhiguo, Li Can and Xu Chungui, 2000. Fauna Sinica, Insecta Vol. 17, Isoptera. Beijing: Science Press. This text is a reorganized adaptation, not a verbatim transcription.