Subfamily Forficulitermitinae · 剪白蚁亚科

About the subfamily

The subfamily Forficulitermitinae was established by Hellemans, Engel and Bourguignon in 2024 (21), with the type genus Forficulitermes Emerson, 1960; the subfamily name is derived from the type genus (Latin forfex, scissors, referring to the elongate, forceps-like curved mandibles). This catalogue includes 1 genera and 1 species.

Because it contains a single genus with a single species, its characters are those of the subfamily: the workers are soil-feeders (humus-feeders); the soldier head is nearly square, the fontanelle lies in a shallow depression with, on each side in front of it, a flat longitudinal ridge that forms a shallow groove running to the base of the clypeus, and there is additionally a small tubercle on each side between the fontanelle and the antennal socket; the mandibles are slender and toothless, used for biting rather than snapping, and the labrum bears a median projection and sharp apicolateral angles on its distal margin. In the worker, the second marginal tooth of the right mandible is well developed, and the four Malpighian tubules open in pairs together at the junction of the mixed segment — characters that distinguish this subfamily from the snapping-type soldiers common in the family and from the Termitinae. In the 2024 analysis its position was unstable in most analyses (21) (it was treated as a rogue taxon), but topology tests did not reject the hypothesis that it is closely related to the Engelitermitinae; its unique morphological combination is sufficient to establish a separate subfamily, representing another narrowly distributed relict monotypic lineage of the family that is non-basal and of uncertain phylogenetic position.

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.