Genus Indotermes · 印白蚁属

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 Indotermes, reorganised and rewritten); the source keys and measurement tables are not reproduced here.

Morphology

Key characters

Soldier head capsule stout and broadly cylindrical, the lateral margins nearly parallel, each mandible with one marginal tooth, postmentum broad, short and flat; alate with small ocelli and compound eyes, fontanelle posterior, the media of the forewing arising from the radial sector, tarsi with only three tarsomeres.

Soldier

Soldier head capsule broadly cylindrical, very stout, the lateral margins nearly parallel, broadly rounded posteriorly. Body colour mainly yellowish brown, mandibles of the same colour but reddish brown to almost black apically, labrum and antennae pale. Head densely covered with fine hairs, thorax and abdomen with intermingled long and short hairs. Mandibles strong, each with one marginal tooth; labrum short and small, its margin transparent; antennae with fourteen segments; postmentum flat, broad and short. Pronotum extremely narrow and short, the anterior lobe semicircular and erect, less than half the width of the head. Tarsi three-segmented.

Alate

Alate head nearly circular, ocelli and compound eyes both small, postclypeus markedly raised, its length equal to or slightly less than half its width, the posterior margin arcuately curved, fontanelle distinct and situated posteriorly, antennae with fifteen segments. Wing membrane brown, the media of the forewing arising from the radial sector and closely adjacent to the cubitus. Anterior margin of the pronotum slightly concave in the middle, the posterior margins of the mesonotum and metanotum each with a narrow, pointed triangular notch. Tibial spur formula 3:2:2, tarsi three-segmented.

Distribution

Oriental Region; a tropical and subtropical element, recorded in southern China.

Summary

Soldiers of Indotermes are large, with a stout subcylindrical head whose sides are nearly parallel and broadly rounded behind. Each mandible bears a single marginal tooth, the labrum is short with a translucent margin, antennae are 14-segmented, and the pronotum is extremely narrow, its erect semicircular fore lobe less than half the head width. Alates have small eyes, a posterior fontanelle 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.