Snootitermes leuserensis, Gathorne-Hardy, 2001

Gathorne-Hardy, Frederick, 2001, A review of the South-East Asian Nasutitermitinae (Isoptera: Termidae), with descriptions of one new genus and a new species and including a key to the genera, Journal of Natural History 35 (10), pp. 1485-1506 : 1491-1495

Snootitermes leuserensis new species

Etymology. Snooti, from snooty adj. haughtily supercilious (Chambers English Dictionary), referring to the soldier’s nose raised in the air. leuserensis refers to the Leuser Ecosystem in Sumatra where this species was discovered.

Holotype. One specimen soldier caste. From soil, Ketambe fi eld station, Aceh Tenggara, Indonesia. coll. Sugesti, September 1998. Deposited in Bogor Zoological Museum, Bogor, Indonesia .

Paratypes. Soldiers, workers and one specimen imago. From soil, Ketambe fi eld station, Aceh Tenggara, Indonesia. coll. Sugesti, September 1998. Deposited in Bogor Zoological Museum, Bogor, Indonesia .

Soldiers, workers. Leuser Ecosystem, northern Sumatra, Indonesia. coll. Hasballah, Sugesti, Syaukani, Gathorne-H ardy, September to October 1998. Deposited in Syiah Kuala University, Darussalam, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

Soldiers, workers. Leuser Ecosystem, northern Sumatra, Indonesia. coll. Hasballah, Sugesti, Syaukani, Gathorne-H ardy, September to October 1998. D eposited in Natural History Museum, London, U K.

Habitat. U ndisturbed tropical rainforest, up to 1250 m. Found in soil, in amorphous nests. Feeds on decomposed, slightly humi fi ed plant material.

Measurements. See table 2 .

Imago. Head capsule dark reddish brown, vertex colour uniform, frons uniform colour apart from frontal marks of muscle attachments. Genae strong brown, postclypeus and labrum brownish yellow. Antennae yellowish brown. Fontanelle pale yellow, pronotum dark brown, mesonotum very pale brown, metanotum very pale brown. Legs yellow. Wing membrane yellow, main wing venation dark reddish brown. Abdominal tergites and sternites dark brown.

Head capsule (disregarding compound eyes) parallel-sided, rounded in front, posterior margin evenly rounded but less than semicircular. Epicranial suture absent. Fontanelle broadly circular, equal in size to ocellus, slightly depressed on side view, centred in front of line joining posterior margins of compound eyes. Ocelli present. Frons fl at or at the most weakly indented in front of the fontanelle. Posterior margin of postclypeus arcuate, clearly in fl ated in contour, labrum weakly curved, not in fl ated in pro fi le. Anterior margin of pronotum is slightly lobed in the middle. Vertex of pronotum densely pilose, forming a pelt with emergent longer setae. F ifteen antennal articles.

Fore coxae without prominent spine-like setae. Tibial spurs 2:2:2. Tarsi (viewed from above) four-segmented. Fore wing bases are larger than those of the hind wing and the fore wing has costal venation fused and a separate unbranched radial sector. Hind wings missing.

Soldier. Head capsule yellow, antennae yellow, pronotum very pale brown, legs very pale brown. Head shape in plan view is circular but wider at back. Sides narrow towards rostrum. Has dense setae with thick ‘moustache’ of hairs on ventral side of nasus. Nasus equal to the length of the head capsule behind the antennae, broadly conical. Fourteen antennal articles. Postmentum is convex and the sides are more or less uniformly concave, with very few setae. Pronotum in plan view indented in middle, outer corners rounded and not extended. In pro fi le, anterior lobe is smaller than the posterior.

Worker. H ead capsule pale yellow, darkest part of antennal fl agellum and pronotum are pale yellow, legs are pale yellow, abdominal tergites are transparent. Head is oval with numerous but not dense setae, separated by less than the length of the longest setae. Head capsule setae are robust, slightly darker than the head capsule, mostly short and roughly the same length and randomly scattered. Epicranial suture is present. Fontanelle, compound eyes and ocelli are absent. Postclypeus with posterior margin is indistinct, while its contour is clearly in fl ated. The labrum contour is (in pro fi le) weakly curved. F ifteen antennal articles. Pronotum saddle-shaped. Fore coxae conical, without prominent spine-like setae on the anterior surface. Fore tibiae with regular fringe of prominent setae on the ventral surface, extending for less than the apical half. The longest tibial setae are equal in length to the longest tibial spurs. Middle and hind tibiae have a regular fringe of prominent setae on the ventral surface. Tibial spurs: 2:2:2. Tarsi four-segmented.

Left mandible apical tooth is roughly equal in prominence to the fi rst marginal, second marginal tooth is absent, incorporated into the cutting edge between the fi rst and third. Third marginal tooth distinctly protrudes from the cutting edge of the fi rst plus second, the anterior edge is shorter than that of the fi rst and is separated from the molar prominence by a distinct gap. The fourth marginal tooth is indistinct.

Right apical tooth is just shorter than that of the fi rst marginal (all measurements follow those of Roonwal, 1970). The fi rst marginal anterior edge is uniform and longer than that of the second. The second marginal tooth is fully developed and separate from the fi rst, the posterior edge of the fi rst marginal tooth is longer than that of the second. Cockroach notch at proximal end of right molar plate is weakly developed and shallowly obtuse. The molar plate ridges are much reduced, and number fi ve.

Crop is normally dilated in front of the abdomen. Proventriculus has a much reduced armature. Mesenteron is without proximal diverticula and overlaps the proctodeum by two or three times the width of the mesenteron, with a sinuate junction to form a mixed segment. The mesenteric part of the mixed segment is external to the loop of the intestine in ventral view and has a single lobe to one side of the fi rst part of the proctodeum (P1). The intestine with the anterior part of the mesenteron is longer than the mixed segment. The junction of the mesenteron and the P1 starts beneath the nerve cord in ventral view. At its narrowest point the mesenteric part of the mixed segment is less than half the width of the proctodeal part. The mesenteric part of the mixed segment is not in fl ated distally. The back end of the mixed segment the ventral view of and unopened abdomen is well to the left of the ventral nerve cord. There are four malpighian tubules which are attached in pairs, closely adjacent at the base directly on to the gut wall at the mesenteric– proctodeal interface. They taper from a broad, ribbon-like base. The attachment is visible in ventral view only, well to the left of the nerve cord. P1 is very long, more than eight times its proximal width and is tubular throughout its length. The termination of the P1 at the enteric valve is not distinct from the rest of the segment. The enteric valve enters directly into the third segment of the proctodeum (P3) and is hidden beneath the mesenteron. The enteric valve seating is invaginated into the P3. The armature of the enteric valve is predominantly within the lumen of the valve. The ridges are unsclerotized and retracted into the lumen of the valve. The main armature of the enteric valve ridges is the same for each; with more than 30 small backwardly directed spines on scales. The spines are straight, small and evenly tapered. The membranous wall of the enteric valve between and beyond the ridges is smooth, without spines. The colon within the mesenteric loop in dorsal view of the unopened abdomen forms only one simple loop.

Comparisons. The soldier of Snootitermes is easily distinguished from all other South-East Asian soil-feeding nasute genera by its thick, hairy and upturned nasus.

Snootitermes worker mandibles are similar to those of Malaysiotermes and Eleanoritermes . However, the enteric valve is much diVerent. On Snootitermes the enteric valve has more than 30 spines on each ridge, while Malaysiotermes has only two small spines per ridge and Eleanoritermes has spines on only three ridges (R oisin and Pasteels, 1996; Appendix).

Tables

Table 2.

	R ange (mm)	M ean (mm)	SD
S nootitermes leuserensis soldiers, 15 specimens from four nests
Head length	1.409–1.874	1.705	0.13
Head width	0.641–1.003	0.876	0.107
Head length to base of rostrum	0.787–1.159	1.017	0.1
Rostrum length	0.614–0.786	0.688	0.047
Rostrum:head ratio	0.564–0.79	0.681	0.062
Head height	0.566–0.844	0.749	0.093
Height pronotum	0.122–0.186	0.161	0.022
Width pronotum	0.355–0.507	0.452	0.044
Width of base of rostrum	0.228–0.303	0.278	0.022
Hind tibia length	1.113–1.146	1.08	0.044
S nootitermes leuserensis workers, 10 specimens from four nests
Right mandible, apical tooth to 1st marginal	0.048–0.069	0.06	0.00728
Right mandible, apical tooth to 2nd marginal	0.141–0.184	0.168	0.016
Right mandible 1st to 2nd marginal	0.097–0.126	0.112	0.0094
Right mandible index	0.452–0.6	0.532	0.0425
Left mandible, apical tooth to 1st marginal	0.049–0.062	0.056	0.0048
Left mandible, apical tooth to 2nd marginal	0.174–0.221	0.2038	0.0197
Left mandible, 1st to 2nd marginal	0.132–0.173	0.156	0.0144
Left mandible index	0.329–0.394	0.361	0.017
Head length	0.586–0.714	0.653	0.0399
Head width	0.767–0.886	0.835	0.0332
Fore tibia	0.639–0.813	0.712	0.053
Fore tibia width	0.067–0.102	0.077	0.013
Fore tibia index	7.971–9.973	9.375	0.751
Hind tibia	0.862–1.115	0.953	0.07