Termites (Blattodea: Isoptera) of southern India: current knowledge on distribution and systematic checklist

Abstract

A checklist of termites (Blattodea: Isoptera) of southern India with their distribution is presented in this paper. In total, 132 species from five families are listed, of which Termitidae Latreille, 1802 is the dominant family comprising 101 species from 27 genera and four subfamilies. The recent additions of species to the regional termite diversity are Krishnacapritermes dineshan Amina & Rajmohana, 2020, K. manikandan Amina & Rajmohana, 2020, and Pseudocapritermes kunjepu Mathew, 2020. Out of 132 species recorded from southern India, 60 species and five genera are endemic to the region, and the subfamily Termitinae Latreille, 1802 accounts for maximum endemism.

A Checklist of Termite Fauna (Isoptera) of Kurukshetra, Haryana

“…Microtermes and Odontotermes whereas subfamily Coptotermitinae of family Rhinotermitidae is denoted by a single genus Coptotermes only. Termitidae was the most dominant family as compared to others (Aiman Hanis et al, 2014;Kakkar et al, 2015;Ranjith and Kalleshwaraswamy, 2021;Bhanupriya et al, 2022); in the present study Termitidae was also found highly diverse with nine species; O. feae, O. assmuthi and O. obesus were the widely distributed in all potential habitats. These observations corroborate with those of Kakkar et al (2015); Gupta and Kakkar (2015) that O. feae, O. gurdaspurensis, O. obesus and M. obesi are the widely scattered species in this study area.…”

Eremotermes neoparadoxalis Ahmad, 1955 (Isoptera: Termitidae: Amitermitinae) a new record from Haryana, India

“…Eremotermes (subfamily Amitermitinae) are found in many localities worldwide (Oriental, Ethiopian and Palaearctic zoogeographical regions), and in India they are known from the Oriental Region (Krishna et al 2013). Ten species of Eremotermes are reported globally, of which six occur in India: dehraduni, fletcheri, madrasicus, neoparadoxalis, paradoxalis, and sanyuktae, while three occur in southern India: paradoxalis, madrasicus, and fletchreri (Chhotani 1997;Ranjith & Kalleshwaraswamy 2021), five in Gujarat and Rajasthan: dehraduni, fletcheri, neoparadoxalis, paradoxalis, and sanyuktae (Rathore & Bhattacharyya 2004), and only paradoxalis from Haryana (Poonia 2019). The present report deals with Eremotermes neoparadoxalis as a new record trapped from dung cake in Palwal (Hodal), Haryana.…”

New Records of Euhamitermes Holmgren From South India

“…India accounts vast diversity of termites consisting of 295 species under 52 genera and six families; of these, family Termitidae accounts for maximum species diversity with 209 species under 34 genera (Rajmohana et al, 2019). Termite diversity of south India comprises of 132 species (Ranjith and Kalleshwaraswamy, 2021), under 35 genera of five families (Kalleshwaraswamy et al, 2013). Soil feeding termites are one of the diverse groups under the family Termitidae.…”