ItalianTermiteMan
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2023
- Messages
- 146
Well well well, looks like today we have a truly impressive species from especially high-altidude habitats: Archotermopsis wroughtoni!
These huge termites hails mainly from the mountain forests of the Himalayan region (usually at heights of about 1500-2000 meters above sea level, but potentially up to almost 3000 and maybe even beyond) but can also be found as south as mountainous northern Thailand. They belong from the very small and primitive Archotermopsidae family and are closely related to the American Zootermopsis (ex. the pacific dampwood termite), however though i don't know their precise max size i do known that they can grow larger than even the largest species of Zootermopsis, and in my opionion are even more impressive... i mean, just look at this soldier! Like their close cousins they nest in damp rotting wood on the forest floor and are no pest, though they are much less known and studied in no small part due to their distrubution further away from large concentrations of entomologists. They form small colonies (as is the norm for their family), lacks a true worker caste and feed preferentially on coniferous trees.
Beside the aforementioned Archotermopsis and Zootermopsis the Archotermopsidae family used to contain another monotypic genus, Hodotermopsis, which however have been very recently (2021) moved to its own brand new family, Hodotermopsidae.
Pic by Dr. Jan Sobotnik (Termite Research Team; shared with permission); Manali (Indian Hymalayas).
These huge termites hails mainly from the mountain forests of the Himalayan region (usually at heights of about 1500-2000 meters above sea level, but potentially up to almost 3000 and maybe even beyond) but can also be found as south as mountainous northern Thailand. They belong from the very small and primitive Archotermopsidae family and are closely related to the American Zootermopsis (ex. the pacific dampwood termite), however though i don't know their precise max size i do known that they can grow larger than even the largest species of Zootermopsis, and in my opionion are even more impressive... i mean, just look at this soldier! Like their close cousins they nest in damp rotting wood on the forest floor and are no pest, though they are much less known and studied in no small part due to their distrubution further away from large concentrations of entomologists. They form small colonies (as is the norm for their family), lacks a true worker caste and feed preferentially on coniferous trees.
Beside the aforementioned Archotermopsis and Zootermopsis the Archotermopsidae family used to contain another monotypic genus, Hodotermopsis, which however have been very recently (2021) moved to its own brand new family, Hodotermopsidae.
Pic by Dr. Jan Sobotnik (Termite Research Team; shared with permission); Manali (Indian Hymalayas).
