dampwood termite workers - Zootermopsis laticeps

Moved

… Andrew Williams, 7 November, 2009 - 10:38am

I have a question on sex.

So you are labeling these as females and the soldiers as males. How do you know thats what they are? I can't remember exactly what I learned but I thought you could not sex workers and soldiers since they're technically not sexually mature, and that only certain workers were secondary reproductives that could become reproductives if the queen and king were not present or didn't release certain pheromones.

… Natalie Hernandez, 6 November, 2009 - 11:42pm

Zootermopsis sexual characteristics

This is true for many termites, but not all. In some groups, such as Zootermposis, external characteristics for workers and soldiers are available. We typically looked at the terminal sternites to determine males vs. females of any terminally differentiated termites of interest, including kings, queens, soldiers, neotenics, and assassins. I found this article that has illustrations similar to what is seen in Zootermopsis. But you are correct that males vs. females can not be determined for these images, at least using any characters that I am familiar with.

… John Carlson, 7 November, 2009 - 3:21pm

Awesome, good to know.

I've really only been taught the families Rhinotermitidae and Kalotermitidae so I'm not familiar with a lot of the charateristics in Termitidae and Termopsidae, and really want to learn more about the genera as well.

… Natalie Hernandez, 7 November, 2009 - 7:30pm

removed tags

I just "unsexed" all of the pics.

… Andrew Williams, 7 November, 2009 - 3:48pm

Zootermopsis castes

The bottom two individuals have wingbuds, suggesting that they have begun developing down the line of “primary reproductives” (i.e. Kings and Queens) after serving as workers during earlier instars. After another moult or two, the wings will be developed and they will be ready to fly off to mate and start new colonies. The third individual has a golden hue characteristic of Neotinics. This is a caste of termite where workers developed sexual maturity without going through a fully winged form, and are thus referred to as “secondary reproductives.” Zootermopsis termites are unusually plastic in their caste development. In addition to having Neotinics, a second type of secondary reproductive is the reproductive-soldier (also referred to as Assassins by a very limited number of enthusiasts). It is hard to make out with certainty, but I believe the image linked to this photo has wingbuds. If so, this is just such an assassin. Secondary reproductives become more common as primary reproductives are killed through wars with neighboring colonies.

… John Carlson, 6 November, 2009 - 4:00pm

Zootermopsis laticeps vs. Zootermopsis angusticollis ?

I ran across this doc Genus Zootermopsis Emerson [4 species]
I just checked another site under Zootermopsis laticeps, and the habitat matched, though..maybe it would be the same for Z.angusticollis

… Andrew Williams, 6 November, 2009 - 4:32pm

Z. laticeps

I can’t remember the characters to definitively separate specimens, but New Mexico is much more likely to have Z. laticeps. I’m also fairly certain that they are Z. laticeps because the mandibles on the soldiers are so much longer than what I remember of the other species. If you collected these in a tree along a river (even if it was dried up at the time) then I would say that the ID is positive. I went on a mini-expedition to Arizona once to try to find these in the wild (and to visit relatives), but sadly was unable to find them. (I did find the relatives, so all was not lost.) The paper that I used to guide my searches (for the termites) was Thorne et al. 1993. Also, looking at these images inspired me to add this information to the Zootermopsis info page. Interestingly, I don't think we have any normal soldiers for any of the species in this genus. I think that they are all assassins from older (larger) colonies.

… John Carlson, 6 November, 2009 - 8:36pm

habitat, right by river - Z. laticeps

I found the termites very close to the Rio Grande, a stone throw away, in a fallen tree limb or stump as I recall. Looks like I nailed Z. laticeps for the guide then :) I'll add a few more pictures of them.

… Andrew Williams, 7 November, 2009 - 10:37am

great info!

Thanks John. This is fascinating info. I didn't know. I noticed the wing buds, but didn't put any thought into it.
Any chance of getting these guys nailed to a species? NM only one Zootermopsis species?

… Andrew Williams, 6 November, 2009 - 4:19pm