Subfamily Foraminitermitinae · 孔白蚁亚科

About the subfamily

The subfamily Foraminitermitinae was established by Holmgren in 1912, with the type genus Foraminitermes Holmgren, 1912; the subfamily name is derived from the type genus (Latin foramen, referring to the fontanelle structure). This catalogue includes 3 genera and 10 species.

Its distribution spans both the Afrotropical realm (West and Central Africa to East Africa) and the Oriental realm (the Malay Peninsula and Southeast Asia). It is mainly soil-feeding (humus-feeding), living underground and often active at the base of old mounds of other termites, and is very rare. Morphologically, the soldier head is nearly rectangular and slightly flattened dorsoventrally, with a distinct, slightly depressed fontanelle in the frontal region; the mandibles are of the robust large-mandible type, gently curved with clear marginal teeth, and are used for chewing rather than snapping; the worker mandibles are of the soil-feeding type, and the enteric valve bears spinose armature, an important diagnostic character for distinguishing this subfamily from its close relatives. Its taxonomic and evolutionary position is distinctive: some transcriptomic and mitochondrial phylogenetic analyses place this subfamily among the most basal divergences within the family (21), where it forms an early branch allied with the Sphaerotermitinae and the fungus-growing Macrotermitinae, and it is a key narrowly distributed relict lineage for studying the early evolution of the family (especially dietary shifts and the origin of the gut symbiotic microbiota).

This section is the standing account the site maintains for this rank and is updated on this page as the classification is revised; the checklist index is in the Checklist.