Genus Tauritermes · 牛白蚁属

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 is unknown; the wing-bud venation and mandibles of the nymph indicate a close relationship with Incisitermes, Marginitermes and Allotermes; the soldier can be distinguished from these genera by the two distinct swellings on the frons, with a concavity between them, and by the serrate anterior margin of the pronotum.

Soldier

Frons shield-like; anterior part dark, with sculpture; front steep; frons with two well-developed swellings separated by a broad concavity; no angular processes above or below the antennal sockets; antennal ridges slightly raised and rounded; a very weak ridge between the frons and the vertex, not as sharp as in Procryptotermes; eyes distinct, colourless; antennae 10–11 segments, the third broader and longer than the second; mandibles slender, the basal tubercle distinct; pronotum as wide as the head, the anterior margin raised and covering the posterior part of the head, deeply concave, undulating and serrate; femora not swollen.

Nymph

Mandibles resembling those of Cryptotermes; the first and second marginal teeth of the left mandible smaller at the base than the third marginal tooth; posterior margin of the second marginal tooth of the right mandible distinctly longer than the molar plate; media of the forewing bud weak, unsclerotised, lying between the radial sector and the cubitus almost to the wing apex.

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. 362–363 This text is an adaptation, not a verbatim transcription of the original.