Genus Postelectrotermes · 后琥珀白蚁属

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

The alate and the soldier both have a spine on the outer side of the mid tibia near the distal spur, which distinguishes them from Neotermes and other genera; the wing venation resembles Neotermes, but the media is more weakly sclerotised.

Alate

Usually dark brown; eyes usually small, 0.25–0.50 mm in diameter; ocelli touching the compound eye or 0.01–0.04 mm from it; antennae 13–19 segments; mandibles resembling those of Kalotermes; pronotum wider than the head; each main vein arising independently at the wing suture; radius branching in some species; radial sector with 7–8 branches, the first branch about 1/5 of the wing length from the wing suture; media more weakly sclerotised than the radial sector and closer to it; cubitus weak, unsclerotised; tibial spur formula 3:3:3; a dark spine on the outer side of the mid tibia, slightly shorter than the distal spur; arolium present.

Soldier

Head long; frons with a median concavity in some species, forming slight lateral swellings, inclined downwards towards the clypeus at about 25–30°; eyes mostly colourless, slightly pigmented in P. pishinensis; antennae 11–18 segments, the third not specialised and not strongly sclerotised, longer or shorter than the fourth; pronotum narrower than, equal to or wider than the head, the anterior margin broadly and shallowly concave or angular; tibial spur formula 3:3:3; an additional spine on the outer side of the mid tibia near the distal spur.

Sources: Krishna K. 1961. A generic revision and phylogenetic study of the family Kalotermitidae (Isoptera). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 122: 303–408., pp. 320–321 This text is an adaptation, not a verbatim transcription of the original.