Hodotermopsis sjostedti Holmgren, 1911 山林原白蚁

Recorded in Fauna Sinica

The morphological and biological accounts below are taken from Fauna Sinica and related literature; only structure and punctuation have been standardized here.

Morphology

Soldier

The front of the head nearly black, passing backwards into reddish brown, labrum and antennae brownish yellow, mandibles pure black; thorax and legs yellow mixed with brown, abdomen milky white, the brown contents of the gut faintly visible through it. Head slightly square-oval, flat, widest at the posterior end or between the posterior end and the middle, narrowing forwards from there, the posterior margin arched backwards in an arc, the vertex flat with a small pit in the middle. Labrum rounded at the sides, its anterior margin rather straight; eye spots kidney-shaped. Mandibles stout, nearly symmetrical left and right, their tips pointed and curved towards the midline; the left mandible with four irregularly shaped large teeth whose bases are connected, the right with only two large teeth, the tip of the first often bearing a triangular point. Antennae with 22–24 segments, moniliform except for the first, the second to fourth nearly equal in length, thereafter slightly thickened and the last four or five segments gradually smaller. Pronotum narrower than the head, flat like a half-moon, the anterior margin slightly concave backwards, the lateral margins continuous with the posterior margin in a semicircle, the median notch of the posterior margin distinct; mesonotum and metanotum equally wide and both narrower than the pronotum. Tarsi four-segmented in dorsal view and five-segmented in ventral view; cerci with three to five segments, the spine-like projections slender and long.

Alate

Alate body length 12–13.5 mm, uniformly brown, the head and wing bases deeper in colour. Head nearly circular, antennae with 21–26 segments. The left mandible with an apical tooth and three marginal teeth, the molar plate short; the apical tooth of the right mandible stout, the subapical tooth small, the first marginal tooth short, the second obliquely truncate, the molar plate correspondingly longer. The pronotum slightly narrower than the width of the head, with a blackish brown depression on each side near the anterior margin; the forewing scale slightly larger than the hindwing scale. Ten abdominal tergites visible dorsally, the seventh sternite the widest, and on lifting it an eight-shaped sclerite is visible; the sclerite on the inner side of the ninth sternite of the female is perhaps a reduced ovipositor, while the male bears on the same segment a pair of unsegmented short spine-like projections; on each side of the base of the tenth segment is a cercus of five segments.

Worker

Nymph

Abstract (from the source)

Biology

Host plants recorded as Huangshan pine, Fujian cypress, Chinese fir, Japanese cedar, Chinese guger tree and rice-flower lyonia.

Distribution and locality

In China recorded from Hejiang, Sichuan; Chenzhou and Xinning, Hunan; Pingbian, Yunnan; Fanjing Shan and Leigong Shan, Guizhou; Dayao Shan and Longsheng, Guangxi; Lianshan, Guangzhou and Shixing, Guangdong; Jiangxi; Wuyi Shan, Fujian; Longquan and Qingyuan, Zhejiang (900–1300 m); and Wuzhishan, Hainan; abroad from Vietnam and Japan.

Taxonomic notes

Source: Huang Fusheng et al. (2000), Fauna Sinica, Insecta vol. 17, Isoptera, Science Press. (entry no. 1 in the original work) Entries are cited by their number in the original work.