Subfamily Promirotermitinae · 前奇白蚁亚科

About the subfamily

The subfamily Promirotermitinae was established by Hellemans, Engel and Bourguignon in 2024 (21), with the type genus Promirotermes Silvestri, 1914; the subfamily name is derived from the type genus name. This catalogue includes 2 genera and 39 species.

Its diet is humus (soil) feeding; an environmental gradient survey in Kruger National Park, South Africa, assigned Promirotermes to the soil–humus feeding group (72). This subfamily is widely distributed across the Afrotropical and Oriental realms, with Angulitermes extending westward to the Middle East and constituting the main diversified element within the subfamily. The soldiers have a rectangular to oval head, symmetrical snapping mandibles, and a distinct frontal process — pointed in Angulitermes and a blunt mound in Promirotermes — accompanied by a bifurcate labrum, these being important features distinguishing them from the similar Amitermitinae; the hindgut ileum (P1) is often expanded into a sac. In the worker–alate mandible type, the second marginal tooth of the right mandible is well developed, distinguishing them from related groups in which the second marginal tooth of the right mandible is reduced or absent; the two pairs of Malpighian tubules of the hindgut are fused at a common base, a stable diagnostic feature of the worker hindgut.

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.