Pericapritermes beibengensis Huang & Han, 1987 背崩近扭白蚁

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

Head and antennae yellow or pale brown, the head turning slightly pale yellow near the posterior margin; labrum milky white; mandibles brownish red to brownish black, the right mandible paler than the left; thorax pale yellow, abdomen milky white. Bristles scattered over the vertex and the abdomen. Head rectangular, the sides almost parallel, the posterior margin slightly rounded. Labrum spatulate, broad anteriorly and narrow posteriorly, its length varying with the mandibles, generally broader than long, with a straight anterior margin bearing four long setae. Mandibles extremely asymmetrical: the left mandible strongly twisted in the middle, its top obliquely truncate, the apex bluntly rounded; the right mandible shorter and straight, sabre-like. The median suture on the posterior part of the dorsum of the head is distinct and reaches the fontanelle; the fontanelle is minute, like a pin-prick. Antennae delicate, with 14 segments, segment 1 the longest, segment 2 about half of segment 1, segment 4 almost equal to or slightly shorter than segment 2 and cylindrical; segments 6 to 8 slender and clavate, almost equal in length; segments 9 to 13 also clavate, of similar length but shorter than segments 6 to 8; segment 14 minute. Postmentum slender, widest near the anterior one-sixth.

Alate

Wings dark brown, head and pronotum brown, anteclypeus white, postclypeus and frons dark brown but slightly paler. Compound eyes small, distinctly projecting outwards. Ocelli small and narrow, inclined antero-internally, more than twice as long as wide, their distance from the compound eye about equal to the length of one ocellus. The head is highest at the ocelli and slopes down both forwards and backwards. Fontanelle slightly raised, white, situated behind the midpoint of the head. The postclypeus is far less than half as long as wide; the labrum is very flat and yellow. Antennae dark brown with 14 segments, segment 3 extremely short, segment 4 equal in length to segment 5, segment 2 longer than segment 4 or 6. The anterior margin of the pronotum is straight and not raised at the middle, the lateral margins projecting outwards; the pronotum bears a broad, extremely pale Y-shaped mark. Tibiae darker than femora and tarsi. Wings brown, densely set with fine punctures, with many hairs on the anterior margin and a row of hairs on the posterior margin; the costa is thick, dark at the base and pale at the apex, and the area between it and the radial sector is pale; the radial sector is thick and dark, bordered by a very narrow bright band and separated in front by an extremely fine dark line. The media lies close to the cubitus, with one branch at the apex of the forewing and two in the hindwing; the cubitus has about eight branches, of which three to four in the basal section are thick.

Worker

Nymph

Abstract (from the source)

Biology

Distribution and locality

Beibeng, Medog, Xizang, 800 m a.s.l.

Taxonomic notes

Source: Huang Fusheng et al. (2000), Fauna Sinica, Insecta vol. 17, Isoptera, Science Press. (entry no. 371 in the original work) Entries are cited by their number in the original work.