War painters - Dolichorhinotermes longilabius

[ItalianTermiteMan]

Two major soldiers and one minor soldier of Dolichorhinotermes longilabius, a beautiful termite species from tropical South America.

While the horn-like structure on their heads might be confused for a nasus (the chemical-secreting head projections used by nasute and mandibulate-nasute termites) at first glance, it is in truth an entirely different and much rarer apparatus: the labral brush. It consist in an highly modified labrum with lots of fine hairs on the tip and a deep groove running through it that connects with a small hole on the soldier's head called the fontanelle; when it's time to fight a toxic defensive fluid produced in the frontal gland is exuded from this pore, flows in the labral brush groove and accumulate between the hairs on its tip, ready to be "painted" directly on an enemy's face! While major soldiers complete this chemical defence with a large pair of hooked, toothed mandibles, the small but agile and abundant minor soldiers specialize fully on the labral brush and sport vestigial mandibles reduced to tiny pointy stumps and similar to those of nasute termites (subfamily Nasutitermitinae).

Picture by Dr. Jan Sobotnik (TRT); French Guiana.
Shared with permission.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Two major soldiers and one minor soldier of Dolichorhinotermes longilabius, a beautiful termite species from tropical South America.

While the horn-like structure on their heads might be confused for a nasus (the chemical-secreting head projections used by nasute and mandibulate-nasute termites) at first glance, it is in truth an entirely different and much rarer apparatus: the labral brush. It consist in an highly modified labrum with lots of fine hairs on the tip and a deep groove running through it that connects with a small hole on the soldier's head called the fontanelle; when it's time to fight a toxic defensive fluid produced in the frontal gland is exuded from this pore, flows in the labral brush groove and accumulate between the hairs on its tip, ready to be "painted" directly on an enemy's face! While major soldiers complete this chemical defence with a large pair of hooked, toothed mandibles, the small but agile and abundant minor soldiers specialize fully on the labral brush and sport vestigial mandibles reduced to tiny pointy stumps and similar to those of nasute termites (subfamily Nasutitermitinae).

Picture by Dr. Jan Sobotnik (TRT); French Guiana.
Shared with permission.


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Very impressive can only termites do this defense mechanism?? It’s so unique you could call it a unicorn horn on a termites. Although it sprays acid ! Ouch !!!

 

[ItalianTermiteMan]

Very impressive can only termites do this defense mechanism?? It’s so unique you could call it a unicorn horn on a termites. Although it sprays acid ! Ouch !!!

The fontanellar gun (which is used by nasute species to squirt a chemical fluid on their foes) is indeed unique to termites, and as far as i know the labral brush (used in this way for combat) is aswell.