Subfamily Macrotermitinae · 大白蚁亚科

About the subfamily

The subfamily Macrotermitinae was established by Kemner in 1934 (53), with the type genus Macrotermes Holmgren, 1909 (Greek makros, large, combined with Termes). This catalogue includes 12 genera and 373 species.

This subfamily is the only group within the Termitidae that is obligately symbiotic with the basidiomycete fungus Termitomyces, cultivating 'fungus combs' within its nests, a symbiosis that originated about 30 million years ago (54). Young workers mix comminuted plant material with spores in the gut, deposit the mixture to build the comb, and feed on the fungal conidia and the mature fungus comb, thereby making use of old, highly lignified plant debris. Its distribution is Old World tropical–subtropical: Africa has the richest fauna, followed by the Oriental realm (southern China has many endemic species), and there are a few representatives in Madagascar (the genus Microtermes) and the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman); there is no natural occurrence in the Neotropical or Australian realms. Most species of this subfamily build subterranean nests or above-ground earthen mounds, in which the fungus-comb chambers and the tunnel system together serve in ventilation and in regulating temperature and humidity; the Macrotermes mounds of the African savanna can reach several metres in height and are among the most conspicuous ecosystem-engineering structures in the tropical landscape. The soldiers of this subfamily have well-developed frontal glands whose reservoirs are visible within the head capsule, a distinct fontanelle in front, and robust large mandibles with hooked apical margins, the left mandible usually bearing a tooth (most pronounced in the genus Odontotermes, from which the genus name derives); in the mature queen the abdomen swells into a giant physogastrium owing to extreme ovarian development, the queens of Macrotermes being the largest, and she lives in the royal chamber where she specializes in egg-laying. Both alates and workers have a sclerotized transverse band at the posterior part of the labrum, separated in the middle by a transparent membrane, and four lobes at the midgut–hindgut junction (anterior to the mixed segment), which are stable diagnostic characters of this subfamily.

Economically, this subfamily is the most important pest group of Old World agriculture and forestry: Macrotermes bellicosus and Macrotermes subhyalinus are the major termite pests of farmland, cacao plantations and coconut plantations in Africa, and their large mounds also hinder mechanized cultivation and harvesting; in southern China the black-winged soil termite Odontotermes formosanus is a major pest of reservoirs and river embankments (55), capable of causing seepage, piping, cave-in collapse and even breaching of the embankment, and it attacks more than a hundred kinds of plants including tea, citrus, eucalyptus and sugarcane, while in the sugarcane areas of Yunnan it damages sugarcane together with Macrotermes barneyi, causing significant yield reduction (56); in India Odontotermes obesus and Microtermes obesi attack wheat, maize, sugarcane, tea and various other crops, causing serious yield reduction and even total crop failure (57, 58). On the other hand, the Termitomyces mushrooms cultivated by this subfamily are famous edible fungi in Asia and Africa. In addition, genera such as Ancistrotermes, Hypotermes, Pseudacanthotermes and Allodontermes are crop pests in Africa and South Asia (10).

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.