Reticulitermes guizhouensis Ping & Xu, 1987 贵州散白蚁

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 whole body has a pale yellowish brown ground colour, the mandibles brown tinged with red and slightly translucent, the pronotum and legs pale yellow. The pilosity of the head capsule is sparse; the outline is rectangular, the lateral margins parallel, the posterior margin broadly rounded, the head width index 0.52–0.58. In lateral view the frontal ridge is raised, the anterolateral corners of the ridge slightly more heavily sclerotised; in dorsal view it is divided into two peaks, the ridge lines of the two peaks forming a shallow V-shaped arch. The labrum is spear-shaped, the apex narrow and rounded, the apical, subapical and lateral-apical hairs and the labral ridge hairs all present. The apices of the mandibles are curved, the middle of the mandibular body stout, with a mandibular condyle, the left mandible longer than half the head capsule and about equal to or slightly exceeding the head width. Antennae with 15–16 segments. The postmentum is narrow and long, eight to eleven times as long as the waist width, the anterior broad region about 0.3–0.4 of the waist width, the head width 5.7–7.8 times the waist width, several shallow transverse striae behind the anterior margin and behind these a dot-like arch. The two sides of the anterior margin of the pronotum form broad arcs, the middle is concave, the lateral margins oblique posteriorly, the posterior margin shallowly concave, with about thirty long hairs in the middle region.

Alate

Worker

Nymph

Abstract (from the source)

Biology

The host is recorded as Pterocarya stenoptera.

Distribution and locality

Rongjiang, Guizhou.

Taxonomic notes

The genus name is printed in the original work as Reticuliter mes, a misspelling of Reticulitermes; it is now assigned to the genus Reticulitermes.

Source: Huang Fusheng et al. (2000), Fauna Sinica, Insecta vol. 17, Isoptera, Science Press. (entry no. 173 in the original work) Entries are cited by their number in the original work.