Genus Serritermes · 齿白蚁属

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 genus is monotypic within the Serritermitidae, and its generic characters are the same as those of the family: in the alate, worker and nymph the apical tooth of the mandible is proportionally elongate and sharp, separated by a broadly curved inner margin from a marginal tooth near the ridged molar plate, which distinguishes it from all other Termitidae; in the soldier the apical parts of both mandibles are long and rather straight, with numerous coarse serrations on the inner margin behind the apex; the pronotum is narrow and long, with both the anterior and posterior margins distinctly bilobed and a deep notch in the middle of each.

Alate

Head oval, medium light brown to yellow; fontanelle set in a small depression, white, of medium size, reduced and forked; compound eyes of medium size and circular, about 1/4 of their diameter from the lower margin of the head; ocelli situated between the compound eyes and the frons, smaller than the compound eyes; antennae 13 or 14 segments; postclypeus large, its length slightly less than half its width, with a median longitudinal line; pronotum about half as long as wide, slightly concave at the anterior margin, the sides rounded and narrowed posteriorly; each tibia with 2 apical spurs; tarsi 4-segmented; arolium absent; cerci 2-segmented; styli absent in both sexes.

Soldier

The sides of the head are nearly straight and narrow forwards, the head broader than long (to the anteclypeus); the outer margin of each mandible is concave at the base, nearly straight in the middle and convex apically; the apices of both mandibles are almost unhooked, and the inner margin of the apical 1/3 bears numerous coarse serrations, with no molar ridges at the base; the serrations of the left mandible reach almost to the base, and before the base there is a blunt process and a small tooth-like process of about 60°; behind the 3–4 coarse serrations at the apex of the right mandible there are about 6 smaller serrations; postclypeus short with a concave anterior margin; labrum longer than wide with a bluntly pointed apex; pronotum elongate, deeply notched at the anterior and posterior margins into two lobes; each tibia with 2 apical spurs; tarsi 4-segmented, segment 4 longer than the remaining segments together; styli absent; cerci 2-segmented.

Worker

Antennae 13 segments; the mandibles are the most specialised known among termites, with the apical part proportionally elongate and sharp and the marginal teeth reduced to one.

Sources: Emerson, A. E.; Krishna, K. 1975. The termite family Serritermitidae (Isoptera). American Museum Novitates 2570: 1–31., pp. 2–8 This text is an adaptation, not a verbatim transcription of the original.