Reticulitermes

Belongs within: Rhinotermitidae.

Reticulitermes is a widespread genus of termites in which soldiers have parallel-sided heads and short, stout mandibles (Nutting 1990).

Characters (Nutting 1990): Imago: Yellowish-brown to black. Antennae with less than 18 segments. Fontanelle inconspicuous. Pronotum shield-like. Wings almost colourless to translucent brown or gray, without fine setae on membrane or margins; median vein present. Fore wing scale distinctly larger than and overlapping hind wing scale. Soldier: Head parallel-sided, longer than wide. Fontanelle inconspicuous, well behind clypeus. Labrum acutely rounded. Mandibles short (usually shorter than head width), stout, rather strongly incurved at tips, left somewhat heavier than right, lacking teeth. Pronotum shield-like.

<==Reticulitermes
    |--R. antiquusB02
    |--R. arenincolaN90
    |--R. flavipesGE05
    |--R. grasseiIVE07
    |--R. hageniN90
    |--R. hesperusDS01
    |--R. khaoyaiensisSVT04
    |--R. lucifugusN90
    |--R. santonensisBP01
    |--R. speratusDS01
    |    |--R. s. speratusT07
    |    `--R. s. kyushuensisT07
    |--R. tibialisTW05
    |--R. urbisEM18
    `--R. virginicusN90

*Type species of generic name indicated

References

[B02] Belayeva, N. V. 2002. Order Termitida Latreille, 1802. The termites (=Isoptera Brullé, 1832). In: Rasnitsyn, A. P., & D. L. J. Quicke (eds) History of Insects pp. 270–273. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Dordrecht.

[BP01] Brugerolle, G., & D. J. Patterson. 2001. Ultrastructure of Joenina pulchella Grassi, 1917 (Protista, Parabasalia), a reassessment of evolutionary trends in the parabasalids, and a new order Cristamonadida for devescovinid, calonymphid and lophomonad flagellates. Organisms Diversity and Evolution 1: 147–160.

[DS01] Dacks, J. B., J. D. Silberman, A. G. B. Simpson, S. Moriya, T. Kudo, M. Ohkuma & R. J. Redfield. 2001. Oxymonads are closely related to the excavate taxon Trimastix. Molecular Biology and Evolution 18 (6): 1034–1044.

[EM18] Eyer, P.-A., B. McDowell, L. N. L. Johnson, L. A. Calcaterra, M. B. Fernandez, D. Shoemaker, R. T. Puckett & E. L. Vargo. 2018. Supercolonial structure of invasive populations of the tawny crazy ant Nylanderia fulva in the US. BMC Evolutionary Biology 18: 209.

[GE05] Grimaldi, D., & M. S. Engel. 2005. Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press: New York.

[IVE07] Inward, D. J. G., A. P. Vogler & P. Eggleton. 2007. A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of termites (Isoptera) illuminates key aspects of their evolutionary biology. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 44: 953–967.

[N90] Nutting, W. L. 1990. Insecta: Isoptera. In: Dindal, D. L. (ed.) Soil Biology Guide pp. 997–1032. John Wiley & Sones: New York.

[SVT04] Sornnuwat, Y., C. Vongkaluang & Y. Takematsu. 2004. A systematic key to termites of Thailand. Kasetsart Journal of Natural Science 38 (3): 349–368.

[TW05] Terry, M. D., & M. F. Whiting. 2005. Mantophasmatodea and phylogeny of the lower neopterous insects. Cladistics 21: 240–257.

[T07] Tsurusaki, N. 2007. The Chugoku Mountains—a hotspot of geographical differentiation of species. Taxa 22: 3–14.