Amitermes is a genus of termites in the family Termitidae. Species are found in a range of habitats including deserts and rainforests. Characteristics of Amitermes soldiers include a bulbous head, sickle-shaped mandibles with a single tooth on their inner margins and cephalic glands on the front of their heads.[1]

Amitermes
Mound of the magnetic termite
Amitermes meridionalis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Blattodea
Infraorder: Isoptera
Family: Termitidae
Subfamily: Termitinae
Genus: Amitermes
Silvestri, 1901
Species

See text

Amitermes hastatus (black mound termites) from the Western Cape region of South Africa repairing a section of their distinctive black mounds. Most of the termites are soldiers.

Species edit

About one hundred species including the following species listed by the Encyclopedia of Life:[2][3]

References edit

  1. ^ Scheffrahn, Rudolf H.; Huchet, Jean-Bernard (2010). "A new termite species (Isoptera: Termitidae: Termitinae: Amitermes) and first record of a Subterranean Termite from the Coastal Desert of South America". Zootaxa. 2328: 65–68. ISSN 1175-5334.
  2. ^ "Amitermes". Encyclopedia of Life. Retrieved 2014-02-01.
  3. ^ "Amitermes meridionalis". Encyclopedia of Life. Retrieved 2014-02-01.
  4. ^ Krishna, Kumar; Grimaldi, David A.; Krishna, Valerie; Engel, Michael S. (2013). "Treatise on the Isoptera of the World. Volume 6: Termitidae (part three), incertae sedis, taxa excluded from Isoptera" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 377: 1993–2432.
  5. ^ Wilson, Edward O. (2000). Sociobiology : the new synthesis (25th anniversary ed.). Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.]: Belknap Pr. of Harvard Univ. Pr. ISBN 978-0-674-00089-6.
  6. ^ S. H. Skaife (1954). "THE BLACK-MOUND TERMITE OF THE CAPE, AMITERMES ATLANTICUS FULLER". Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. 34: 251–271. doi:10.1080/00359195409518986.