Subfamily Termitinae · 白蚁亚科

About the subfamily

The subfamily Termitinae was established by Latreille in 1802, at the same time as the family Termitidae, with the type genus Termes Linnaeus, 1758. This catalogue includes 23 genera and 107 species.

In this subfamily, the soldiers of most species are of the chewing type: the soldier mandibles are elongated with few but large teeth, defending by biting and cutting; among them, Capritermes and others have asymmetrical left and right mandibles, using a “snapping” mechanism to strike intruders at high speed; there are also types with symmetrical snapping mandibles, such as the pincer termite Termes marjoriae. The distribution is summarized into four major faunal regions: the Australian realm is one major distribution region, with more than ten genera occurring mainly in Australia (some extending to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands); the Neotropical realm is another major distribution region, ranging widely from Mexico to South America; there are also representatives in the Afrotropical realm; in the Oriental realm there are only a few species of Termes (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and Guangdong and Jinghong in Yunnan, China). The diet is mainly wood feeding and soil-humus feeding; the genus Inquilinitermes is an inquiline group, dwelling in the nests of other termite genera. In the worker, the apical tooth of the mandible is longer than or slightly shorter than the combined length of the first and second marginal teeth, and the second marginal tooth of the right mandible is reduced or absent with a straight posterior margin; the two pairs of Malpighian tubules are united into a common node attached to the mixed segment, and the enteric valve (P2) is located on the left side of the abdomen (Cornicapritermes alone is an exception, with the ileum coiled in a ring on the ventral side and the enteric valve on the right side). The soldier has a nearly rectangular head, and the frontal process varies in size among genera. (3)

Economically, in a survey of pastures in Paraguay, the mounds of Termes sp. reduced the effective usable area of pasture (77). Termes hispaniolae has a record of introduction to the Bahamas.

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.