Amitermes californicus Banks, 1920 (Isoptera, Termitidae, Termitinae) resurrected after ninety years of synonymy and A. floridensis Scheffrahn, 1989 synonymized into A. wheeleri (Desneux, 1906)
Author
Scheffrahn, Rudolf H.
text
Zootaxa
2022
2022-04-22
5128
4
581
588
journal article
55834
10.11646/zootaxa.5128.4.7
1cfce8c2-1ab3-443f-ba0d-e2a05603689a
1175-5326
6480094
65CF7D76-B932-4AAF-A93D-E0E2E33AD06D
Amitermes wheeleri
(
Desneux, 1906
)
Light, 1930b
: soldier mandibles figured 231 fig. 4.
Nutting 1990
: soldier figured 1019 fig. 33.15b.
Scheffrahn
et al.
1983
: soldier figured; 1297 fig. 1.
Scheffrahn
et al.
1986a
: soldier figured; 662 fig. 1 (right).
Scheffrahn
et al.
1989
: soldier figured; 619 fig. 1.
Scheffrahn & Su 1994
: soldier figured; 468 figs. 22ā23.
Krishna
et al.
2013: 2061ā2062
.
Amitermes floridensis
Scheffrahn, Su, Mangold, 1989
syn. nov.
A key that includes the soldiers of Nearctic species of
Amitermes
was published by
Nutting (1990)
beginning with couplet 9a (
A. wheeleri
). This key did not include
A. floridensis
. In order to accommodate
A. californicus
, couplet 9a must be modified and another couplet (10) added as follows:
9a (8a)
Teeth large, conical, directed inward..................................................................
10
9b
Teeth acute, cut out of margin and set off from basal hump by deep notch....................................
11
10a (9a)
Mandible blades and teeth stout, mean head width ca.
1.07 mm
(
Figs. 3A, B
, herein); common in the arid lands of the southwestern
U.S.
and
Mexico
......................................................
A. californicus
Banks
10b
Mandible blades and teeth slender, mean head width ca.
0.85 mm
(
Figs. 3CāF
, herein); common in the arid lands of the southwestern
U.S.
,
Mexico
, and mesic central Florida but may be absent or rare in California.........
A. wheeleri
Light
The numbers for each succeeding couplet must be increased by one to complete the key.