Acangaobitermes krishnai Rocha, Cancello & Cuezzo, 2011 克里希纳漏斗白蚁

Morphology

The description below is paraphrased from the original or a later revision, by caste; the source is cited at the end.

Diagnostic characters

Closely related to Noirotitermes, the two sharing a finely granular microsculpture and internal granules on the soldier head capsule, piercing-sucking mandibles with only 1 extremely reduced marginal tooth, and a similar worker habitus and gut; they differ in soldier head shape, frontal tube and pronotum: in this genus the frontal tube is long and conical, the posterior head margin lacks the 4 conspicuous horn-like projections of Noirotitermes, and the pronotum is saddle-shaped (aberrant in Noirotitermes). Compared with other genera of Syntermitinae, the soldier frontal tube of this genus is longer than the labrum, the hyaline labral tip is not developed, and the mandibles are strongly upcurved with only 1 marginal tooth; Macuxitermes also has postoccipital projections, but in this genus they are less distinct.

Soldier

Monotypic. Head capsule subrectangular, the sides almost parallel, each posterolateral corner with 1 very distinct projection; surface densely covered with fine punctations of similar size, forming the microsculpture peculiar to this genus; frontal tube conical, upturned, the apical opening relatively wide, ringed by white membrane; antennal segments 14; mandibles slender, piercing-sucking, the blades strongly incurved and upturned, the blade base with 1 very small tooth, molar plate/molar prominence well developed but without ridges; clypeus much reduced; labrum apically rounded and flat, hyaline; postmentum subrectangular, anterolateral margins slightly concave; coxae with a keel-like projection protruding outwards at the anterolateral distal margin; tibial spur formula 2:2:2. Head orange, mandibles rusty, body pale yellow.

Worker

Monotypic. Head capsule round; postclypeus inflated; antennal segments 14; apical tooth of the left mandible larger than M1+2, the cutting edge between M1+2 and M3 undulate, M3 distinct and smaller than M1+2, molar tooth distinct, partly obscured by the molar prominence, molar prominence concave, without ridges; apical tooth of the right mandible larger than the marginal teeth, M1 and M2 clearly separate, molar plate concave, without ridges; coxae smooth, without projections; body slender, the gut visible through the sternites; tibial spur formula 2:2:2. Gut: crop asymmetric, without a constriction between it and the gizzard; gizzard with 24 folds, 6 primary, 6 secondary and 12 tertiary; columnar band and cushion band about equal in width; Malpighian tubules 2 pairs, inserted at the midgut–hindgut junction; P1 oblique to the body axis, more inflated than the midgut; P2 on the left side of the body; P3 slightly constricted between P3a and P3b; dorsal torsion well developed; P4a inflated, folded into a U shape, P4b tubular.

This genus is monotypic, containing only this species; the following is the genus-level description based on the original literature; species-level measurements and intraspecific variation are given in the original.