Genus Macrotermes · 大白蚁属

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

Morphology

Key characters

Soldier usually of two sizes, major and minor, or of three, major, medium and minor; the two sides of the head parallel or narrowed anteriorly, frons flat, fontanelle punctiform; mandibles curved like sickles, the base of the left mandible with several notches and a distinct basal tooth; antennae with seventeen segments.

Soldier

Soldier usually of two sizes, major and minor, some species also with a medium size, three in all. The two sides of the head parallel, or narrowed anteriorly. Frons flat, fontanelle punctiform. Labrum widest at the middle, with a small transparent patch at the apex. Mandibles curved like sickles; the base of the left mandible with several notches and one distinct basal tooth, no other teeth besides the basal one; the right mandible likewise toothed only at the base. Antennae with seventeen segments, the third often longer than the second. Pronotum saddle-shaped, both its anterior and posterior margins notched.

Alate

Alate head broadly oval, fontanelle distinct and slightly raised, ocelli fairly large. Postclypeus convex, about half as long as wide, the posterior margin arcuate and the anterior margin straight. Antennae with nineteen segments, the third longer than the second. The posterior margins of the mesonotum and metanotum form shallow arcuate incisions. Radius projecting slightly beyond the wing scale; the media of the forewing arises independently at the humeral suture, the media of the hindwing mostly from the base of the radial sector. The lateral walls of the queen's abdomen without dense coloured dots.

Distribution

Oriental and Afrotropical Regions; recorded from every province and autonomous region of southern China.

Summary

Macrotermes soldiers occur in two size classes, or three in some species. The head is parallel-sided or narrowed anteriorly, the frons is flat with a dot-like fontanelle, and the labrum is widest at the middle. The sickle-shaped mandibles have several notches and a distinct basal tooth on the left, while the right is toothless apart from the basal tooth. Antennae have seventeen segments, and the saddle-shaped pronotum is notched both anteriorly and posteriorly.

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.