Stylotermes sinensis 中华杆白蚁
- Type locality
- China: Hainan Island: Fu-Shan
- Distribution
- China
List： English (genus page) · 中文 · Español
Summary
Stylotermes sinensis is a species of the genus Stylotermes, in the family STYLOTERMITIDAE. The species was described by Yu & Ping in 1964; the type locality is China: Hainan Island: Fu-Shan. Distribution: China.
Etymology
Genus name Stylotermes: From Greek stylos (pillar, style) + Latin termes.
Specific epithet sinensis: Latin Sinensis (of China)
Taxonomic position
- Family: STYLOTERMITIDAE — 1 genus, 45 species
- Genus: Stylotermes — 45 species
- Type species of the genus: Stylotermes fletcheri
Distribution
- Distribution records: China
The record above follows the wording of the original data; no geocoding or standardized place names have been applied.
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 reddish brown, mandibles purplish brown, pronotum orange-brown, head capsule moderately haired.
Alate
Head capsule brown, antennae, thorax, abdomen and legs pale brown. Head capsule subcircular and slightly elongate. Fontanelle small, with longitudinal striae in front of it. The anterior part of the frons bears shallow impressed lines. In lateral view the vertex is rather flat, the postclypeus slightly raised and situated lower than the ocelli. Antennae 17-segmented. Compound eyes elongate-oval, prominence about 15%; the distance between the compound eye and the lower margin of the head about one-fifth of the long diameter of the eye, the distance between the ocellus and the compound eye about one-half of the long diameter of the ocellus. Pronotum about 1.75 times as wide as long, the anterior margin shallowly concave in a broad V, the lateral margins broadly rounded, the posterior margin nearly straight and slightly concave at the centre. Forewing longer than hindwing, the forewing 7.4–7.9 mm long and 2.10–2.15 mm wide, the hindwing 7.1–7.4 mm long and 1.9–2.0 mm wide; the forewing scale larger than the hindwing scale, the base of the hindwing scale slightly overlapped by the forewing scale; cubitus comb-like, with about 10 or more branches.
Worker
Nymph
Abstract (from the source)
The soldier has a reddish brown head, purplish brown mandibles, an orange-brown pronotum and moderately hairy capsule. Alates have a brown capsule, slightly longer than round, with a small fontanelle preceded by longitudinal striae. Antennae have 17 segments; the eyes are elongate-oval and protrude about 15 percent, lying one-fifth of an eye length above the lower head margin. The pronotum is about 1.75 times as wide as long, widely and shallowly V-notched in front. Forewings exceed hindwings, and the cubitus is comb-like with about ten branches.
Biology
Host plants recorded: Chinese sweetgum, Ficus hispida, Quercus acutissima and Vernicia montana.
Distribution and locality
Throughout Hainan.
Taxonomic notes
The genus name is printed as Srylotermes in the original work, a spelling error for Stylotermes; the genus name currently in use is consistent with this.
Source: Huang Fusheng et al. (2000), Fauna Sinica, Insecta vol. 17, Isoptera, Science Press. (entry no. 244 in the original work) Entries are cited by their number in the original work.
Distribution map
No GBIF record with coordinates was found for this species.
Related papers
Cached papers for this genus (matched automatically, for reference); to search this species with its junior synonyms merged in, use the literature search.
- A new species of the genus Stylotermes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)
Abstract
- 9 new species of the genus stylotermes from china isoptera
Abstract
- The trail-following communication in Stylotermes spp. (Blattodea, Isoptera, Stylotermitidae)
Abstract
Stylotermitidae appear peculiar among all termites, feeding in trunks of living trees in South Asia only. The difficulty to collect them limits our ability to study them, and they thus still belong to critically unknown groups in respect to their biology. We used a combined approach of microscopic observations, chemical analysis and behavioural tests, to understand the source and chemical nature of the trail-following pheromone of Stylotermes faveolus from India and S. halumicus from Taiwan. The sternal gland is the exclusive source of the trail-following pheromone in both Stylotermes species. It is located at the 5th abdominal sternite in workers, made of class I, II and III secretory cells. Gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry showed a minor peak corresponding to (Z)-dodec-3-en-1-ol (DOE). This compound elicits strong behavioural responses in workers, with a trail-following activity threshold around 10− 4 ng/cm in both species. Based on both chemical analysis and behavioural experiments, we estimated the amount of DOE around 0.1 ng/gland in S. faveolus and we conclude that DOE is the only active component of the trail-following pheromone of both Stylotermes species, like in all Kalotermitidae studied so far. Our results confirm the switch from complex aldehyde trail-following pheromones occurring in the basal groups to simpler linear alcohols in the ancestor of Kalotermitidae and Neoisoptera.
Papers on this species, synonyms included → OpenAlex Google Scholar CNKI
Abstracts come from open metadata; copyright remains with the original authors/publishers. For reference only — please check the original.
Other species in Stylotermes (44 species)
- Stylotermes acrofrons
- Stylotermes ahmadi
- Stylotermes alpinus
- Stylotermes angustignathus
- Stylotermes beesoni
- Stylotermes bengalensis
- Stylotermes chakratensis
- Stylotermes changtingensis
- Stylotermes chengduensis
- Stylotermes chongqingensis
- Stylotermes choui
- Stylotermes crinis
- Stylotermes curvatus
- Stylotermes dunensis
- Stylotermes faveolus
- Stylotermes fletcheri
- Stylotermes fontanellus
- Stylotermes guiyangensis
- Stylotermes halumicus
- Stylotermes hanyuanicus
- Stylotermes inclinatus
- Stylotermes jinyunicus
- Stylotermes labralis
- Stylotermes laticrus
- Stylotermes latilabrum
- Stylotermes latipedunculus
- Stylotermes lianpingensis
- Stylotermes longignathus
- Stylotermes mecocephalus
- Stylotermes minutus
- Stylotermes mirabilis
- Stylotermes orthognathus
- Stylotermes parabengalensis
- Stylotermes planifrons
- Stylotermes robustus
- Stylotermes roonwali
- Stylotermes setosus
- Stylotermes sui
- Stylotermes triplanus
- Stylotermes tsaii
44 species in this genus. See all species on the genus page →
Cite this species
Citation strings are generated from the fields of this page; please keep the DOI and the version number when citing.
GB/T 7714
班奈特格林. Extant Isoptera (termites): a checklist of Latin and Chinese names: Stylotermes sinensis 中华杆白蚁[EB/OL]. Version 2026.10.30. https://termite-extant-isoptera.org/en/species/stylotermes-sinensis/. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23646836.
BibTeX
@misc{isoptera_stylotermes_sinensis_2026,
author = {班奈特格林},
title = {Stylotermes sinensis: a checklist of extant Isoptera (termites)},
year = {2026},
version = {2026.10.30},
howpublished = {https://termite-extant-isoptera.org/en/species/stylotermes-sinensis/},
note = {STYLOTERMITIDAE; version 2026.10.30; DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23646836},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.23646836}
}
RIS
TY - ELEC TI - Stylotermes sinensis: a checklist of extant Isoptera (termites) AU - 班奈特格林 PY - 2026 UR - https://termite-extant-isoptera.org/en/species/stylotermes-sinensis/ DO - 10.5281/zenodo.23646836 ER -