Anacanthotermes Explained

Anacanthotermes is an Old World genus of termites in the Hodotermitidae. They are found in deserts and semideserts of North Africa, the Middle East and Southwest Asia, including Baluchistan and southern India.^[1] Wings of the alates are glabrous and lack the microstructures like micrasters, microsetae or rods found in more modern Isoptera.^[2] In the driest and most arid locations in Africa it is generally replaced by Psammotermes.^[3]

Species

The genus contains some 13 species:^[4]

• A. ahngerianus (Jacobson)
• A. baeckmannianus (Vasiljev)
• A. baluchistanicus Akhtar, 1974
• A. iranicus Ravan et al., 1994
• A. macrocephalus (Desneux, 1906)
• A. murgabicus (Vasiljev)
• A. ochraceus (Burmeister)
• A. saudiensis Chhotani, et al., 1982
• A. septentrionalis (Jacobson)
• A. turkestanicus (Jacobson)
• A. ubachi (Navas)
• A. vagans (Hagen, 1858)
• A. viarum (König, 1779)

Notes and References

1. Book: Abe, Takuya . Termites: Evolution, Sociality, Symbioses, Ecology . 2000–2002 . Kluwer Academic Publishers . Dordrecht, The Netherlands . 0-7923-6361-2 . 35–36. etal.
2. Roonwal . M. L. . Evolution and Systematic Significance of Wing Micro-sculpturing in Termites. XIII. Order Isoptera . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India . 1983 . B49 . 5 . 359–391 . 5 February 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131111100039/http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/rawdataupload/upload/insa/INSA_1/20005bbc_359.pdf . 11 November 2013 .
3. Web site: Psammotermes . Bath, Rebecca . 22 January 2009 . Termites of the World . 31 January 2014.
4. Web site: Anacanthotermes Jacobson, 1905. Isoptera . biolib.cz . 5 February 2013.