Macrotermes luokengensis Lin & Shi, 1982 罗坑大白蚁

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

Major soldier: head brownish, abdominal tergites dark brown, mandibles black, the face with sparse small hairs. Minor soldier paler, head brownish yellow, abdomen and legs pale yellow, antennae brown, mandibles black, labrum brown with a white transparent triangular point at the anterior end. Head widest in the middle and posterior part, narrowing forwards, the two posterior corners distinctly rounded and the lateral margins rather strongly curved; mandibles slender, straight and stiff, only the tip slightly curved, the base of the left mandible with several undulate incisions, the right mandible toothless; antennae with 17 segments, segments 2 and 3 about equal in length; labrum ligulate with a transparent triangular point at the anterior end, wider than long; fontanelle minute but still distinct, situated at the centre of the vertex; the posterior part of the head with two rather short dark longitudinal stripes; postmentum projecting outwards; pronotum narrower than the head, about two thirds of the head width, the anterior margin with a few short hairs.

Alate

Head and thoracic dorsum dark brown, compound eyes black, postclypeus brown, mandibles dark brown, antennae dark brown. Compound eyes oval, ocelli elongate-oval, the distance between the ocelli and the compound eyes slightly less than the ocellus width; postclypeus markedly arched, length less than half the width, with a median longitudinal groove; antennae with 19 segments, segment 3 slightly longer than segment 2; fontanelle minute, situated at the centre of the vertex. Pronotum flat, about as wide as the head, broader anteriorly and narrower posteriorly, with a concavity in the middle both in front and behind, a Y-shaped pale marking slightly above the centre, and a round pale spot at each of the upper left and right corners and below the middle. Forewing scale slightly larger than the hindwing scale, the media of the forewing arising independently from the base, closer to the cubitus than to the radius sector, and beginning to branch before the midpoint, the media of the hindwing arising slightly in front of the base of the radius sector and also branching before the midpoint.

Worker

Nymph

Abstract (from the source)

Biology

Distribution and locality

Dianbai, Guangdong.

Taxonomic notes

The genus name was printed in the original work as Macrorermes, a typographical error for Macrotermes; the species is still placed in the genus Macrotermes.

Source: Huang Fusheng et al. (2000), Fauna Sinica, Insecta vol. 17, Isoptera, Science Press. (entry no. 308 in the original work) Entries are cited by their number in the original work.