ItalianTermiteMan
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2023
- Messages
- 146
Sharing with you a few pics of soldiers and presoldiers of what's likely the nicest termite species i'm keeping as now: Hodotermopsis sjostedti.
This is very large and primitive Asian dampwood termite found in southeastern China, Vietnam and a few of Japan's southernmost islands where they nest inside wet, rotting wood in a comparable way to the American genus Zootermopsis (tough they can seemingly develope larger colonies). They are also the only genus and species of the newest of all termite families: Hodotermopsidae, which was erected specificallty for them in 2022; precedently they were included in the Archotermopsidae family along several species of Archotermopsis and Zootermopsis. Keeping-wise, these termites take well to captivity and are in my experience rather easy to succesfully culture.
And now, the pics... this time by me for once!
Here we have a soldier. These are large (reaching and maybe even exceeding 22 mm in large and prosperous colonies), very
aggressive and much more agile than those of most other termites. Their weapon of choice are an impressive pair of strongly
toothed mandibles employ both crush and slice; they also possess a pair of fully developed eyes placed just behind the antennal
sockes, but they're still rather small and hard to see against the blackish head.
Two soldiers (one partial) and a presoldier. The presoldier is a short-lived and purely developemental stage present in all
soldiered termites whose only purpose is allow a larva/pseudergate/worker (depending on the species) to bridge the very incisive
external and especially internal changes needed to become a soldier... paratically, it's the closest thing hemimetabolous insects have
to a pupa. After a short time has passed (tipically around 15 days), the presoldier will molt into a "proper" soldier.
A better shot of a presoldier. Soldiers features like the mandibles are clearly present at this stage, albeit not fully developed.
Also since its cuticle is unsclerotized and wholly pale you can see its eyes very well.
And we'll end this thread with a pic of my index finger after a close encounter with a large soldier of H. sjostedti.
While the conformation of their mandibles makes them much inferior in sheer cutting power compared to
the like of large Macrotermes soldiers (whose bite is definitely worse for a human), these Hodotermopsis can still
deliver some quite powerful nips or, like in this case, use their curved jaws as a stab weapon.
However, it's against other small invertebrate enemies that such jagged mandibles shines, with the large tooths
being able to pierce and crack the rigid exoskeleton of a bitten foe and inflict consistent damage without the need
to fully slice through it.
This is very large and primitive Asian dampwood termite found in southeastern China, Vietnam and a few of Japan's southernmost islands where they nest inside wet, rotting wood in a comparable way to the American genus Zootermopsis (tough they can seemingly develope larger colonies). They are also the only genus and species of the newest of all termite families: Hodotermopsidae, which was erected specificallty for them in 2022; precedently they were included in the Archotermopsidae family along several species of Archotermopsis and Zootermopsis. Keeping-wise, these termites take well to captivity and are in my experience rather easy to succesfully culture.
And now, the pics... this time by me for once!
Here we have a soldier. These are large (reaching and maybe even exceeding 22 mm in large and prosperous colonies), very
aggressive and much more agile than those of most other termites. Their weapon of choice are an impressive pair of strongly
toothed mandibles employ both crush and slice; they also possess a pair of fully developed eyes placed just behind the antennal
sockes, but they're still rather small and hard to see against the blackish head.
Two soldiers (one partial) and a presoldier. The presoldier is a short-lived and purely developemental stage present in all
soldiered termites whose only purpose is allow a larva/pseudergate/worker (depending on the species) to bridge the very incisive
external and especially internal changes needed to become a soldier... paratically, it's the closest thing hemimetabolous insects have
to a pupa. After a short time has passed (tipically around 15 days), the presoldier will molt into a "proper" soldier.
A better shot of a presoldier. Soldiers features like the mandibles are clearly present at this stage, albeit not fully developed.
Also since its cuticle is unsclerotized and wholly pale you can see its eyes very well.
And we'll end this thread with a pic of my index finger after a close encounter with a large soldier of H. sjostedti.
While the conformation of their mandibles makes them much inferior in sheer cutting power compared to
the like of large Macrotermes soldiers (whose bite is definitely worse for a human), these Hodotermopsis can still
deliver some quite powerful nips or, like in this case, use their curved jaws as a stab weapon.
However, it's against other small invertebrate enemies that such jagged mandibles shines, with the large tooths
being able to pierce and crack the rigid exoskeleton of a bitten foe and inflict consistent damage without the need
to fully slice through it.
