Genus Hypotermes · 地白蚁属

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) (generic description in the original book's section on Hypotermes, reorganised and rewritten); the source keys and measurement tables are not reproduced here.

Morphology

Key characters

Soldier head oval, slightly narrowed anteriorly, body colour pale yellowish brown; labrum arcuate, slightly longer than wide; the middle of the left mandible with three marginal teeth, the right mandible with serrated small teeth before the base; antennae with fifteen to sixteen segments.

Soldier

Soldier head pale yellowish brown to brown, paler anteriorly; pronotum yellow, antennae brown, labrum pale brown, mandibles pale reddish brown. Head surface sparsely haired; the anterior half of the labrum with several long hairs around its margin, the anterior margin of the postmentum also with long hairs, long hairs scattered over the pronotum. Head oval, slightly narrowed anteriorly. Labrum arcuate, slightly longer than wide. Mandibles slender and incurved, the middle of the left mandible with three marginal teeth, the right mandible with serrated small teeth before the base. Postmentum arcuate, the two sides slightly straight. Antennae with fifteen to sixteen segments, occasionally seventeen. Anterior and posterior margins of the pronotum both slightly concave in the middle.

Alate

Alate head reddish brown; anteclypeus white, postclypeus pale yellowish brown, antennae brown; the pronotum slightly darker in colour than the head and bearing a T-shaped mark, each of the two anterior lateral corners with a ring-shaped spot resembling an ocellus. Head and postclypeus densely covered with short hairs, interspersed with sparse long hairs. Head outline semicircular; fontanelle small and round; compound eyes not very regularly rounded, protruding slightly outwards; ocelli broadly oval. Postclypeus about half as long as wide, the median longitudinal line clear; labrum arcuate; anteclypeus trapezoidal; antennae with nineteen segments. Pronotum narrower than the head, half-moon shaped in outline; its anterior margin roughly straight, the median notch very shallow, and the posterior margin slightly concave in the middle.

Distribution

Oriental Region; in China the species occur in western and southern Yunnan.

Summary

Hypotermes soldiers are pale yellowish brown, with a sparsely hairy oval head that narrows anteriorly and a rounded labrum slightly longer than wide. The mandibles are slender and incurved, the left carrying three marginal teeth near the middle and the right a row of serrate denticles before the base; the postmentum is arcuate and antennae have fifteen or sixteen segments. Alates are reddish brown with a T-shaped pronotal mark, a small round fontanelle and nineteen antennal segments.

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.