Reticulitermes castanus Ping, 1986 褐胸散白蚁

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 head is pale yellowish brown. The head capsule is rectangular, the head width index 0.51–0.57, the sides slightly constricted behind the antennal sockets and then slightly expanded outwards again. The frontal ridge is strongly raised. The labrum is roundly spear-shaped with a sharply rounded apex, the apical hairs long, the lateral-apical hairs present or absent, the subapical hairs minute. The mandibles are stout and strong with strongly curved apices, the basal ridge of the outer margin visible, their length 0.88–0.96 times the head width and 0.48–0.51 times the head capsule length. Antennae with 15–17 segments. The postmentum is club-shaped, the width of the waist region varying between 0.16 and 0.25 mm according to the colony, the waist constriction index 0.30–0.45, the ratio of the waist region to the head width about 1:7–9 and to the length of the postmentum about 1:7–12. The pronotum is about 1.6 times as wide as long, the median notch of the anterior margin deeper than that of the posterior, the lateral margins gently oblique backwards, with about fifty long bristles in the middle region.

Alate

The body is brown, the head darker, the pronotum brown and slightly paler posteriorly, the postmentum and the femoral segments both brown, the tibiae and tarsi pale greyish yellow. The head capsule is oval, the vertex slightly arched, the fontanelle dot-like and slightly projecting. In lateral view the postclypeus is slightly raised and lies below the vertex. The long diameter of the compound eye is far greater than the distance from the compound eye to the lower margin of the head, the projection rate 5–8 per cent. The diameter of the ocellus is nearly three times the ocellus-compound eye distance. The distance from the compound eye to the antennal socket is about half the distance from the ocellus to the antennal socket. Antennae with 17–18 segments. The pronotum is about 1.5 times as wide as long, the median longitudinal line almost invisible, the hairs of the middle region abundant and dense.

Worker

Nymph

Abstract (from the source)

Biology

Distribution and locality

Damingshan, Wuming, Guangxi, 1,050 m a.s.l.; also recorded from Tianlin, Baise and Longsheng.

Taxonomic notes

The genus name is defective in the original work, printed as Reticuliter mes; it is in fact the genus Reticulitermes, the same genus name as currently used on this site.

Source: Huang Fusheng et al. (2000), Fauna Sinica, Insecta vol. 17, Isoptera, Science Press. (entry no. 163 in the original work) Entries are cited by their number in the original work.