Sinonasutitermes dimorphus Li, 1986 二型华象白蚁

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

Soldiers of two forms. Head, antennae, thorax and abdominal tergites all yellow, the nasus and the anterior part of the pronotum brownish yellow. Head and thorax without hairs, abdominal tergites with only a few soft hairs. Large form: head broadly oval, wider than long, strongly projecting behind the antennae, the sides narrowly rounded, the posterior margin broadly rounded; in profile the nasus is straight and not upturned, concave in the middle, its tip slightly lower than the posterior margin of the head; the apical spine of the mandibles extremely short, sometimes only a small point remains. Antennae 13 segments, the third about twice the second, the second and fourth nearly equal in length. Pronotum saddle-shaped, the anterior half erect and raised, the anterior margin rather flat without a distinct incision, the posterior margin arcuate. Tibial spurs 2:2:2, tarsi 4-segmented. Small form: body colour similar to the large form, the tip of the nasus with a few hairs, the rest of the body almost hairless; head broadly circular, the posterior margin broadly rounded with the middle slightly flat; antennae 12 segments, the third about twice the second; mandibles mostly with extremely short small spines, in some specimens a small point on the left and blunt without a spine on the right; the incisions of the anterior and posterior margins of the pronotum both indistinct.

Alate

Head, antennae and postclypeus yellowish brown, thorax, wings and legs yellow. Head and pronotum densely covered with soft hairs mixed with a few long hairs, the long hairs of the pronotum more numerous than those of the head. Head nearly circular; fontanelle large, elongate-oval, with a fork on each anterolateral side; four or more elliptical markings between the two ocelli. Compound eyes elliptical, distinctly projecting; ocelli oval and raised, the ocellus–compound eye distance smaller than their short diameter and also smaller than the distance from the compound eye to the lower margin of the head. Postclypeus raised, 3–4 times as wide as long, with a median longitudinal line. Antennae 15 segments, the third rather short, or the second and third both short and nearly equal. Apical tooth of the left mandible slightly larger than marginal tooth 1, the cutting edge between the marginal teeth rather straight; apical tooth of the right mandible slightly larger than or nearly equal to marginal tooth 1, marginal tooth 2 close to marginal tooth 1, the molar plate with nine grooves. Middle of the anterior margin of the pronotum slightly arched, deeply depressed on both sides near the anterior margin, the incision of the anterior margin indistinct, the posterior margin distinctly concave.

Worker

Nymph

Abstract (from the source)

Biology

Distribution and locality

Mount Meihua, Longyan, Fujian; Mount Maozifeng, Nanxiong, Guangdong.

Taxonomic notes

Source: Huang Fusheng et al. (2000), Fauna Sinica, Insecta vol. 17, Isoptera, Science Press. (entry no. 441 in the original work) Entries are cited by their number in the original work.