Archotermopsidae

Archotermopsidae is a family of termites in the order Blattodea, known as dampwood termites, formerly included within the family Termopsidae.[1] They constitute a small and rather primitive family with two extant genera and 5 living species.[2] They may rarely infest structures but do not usually do so, nor do they cause extensive damage to buildings or other man-made structures unless said structure has been sufficiently damaged such as by water. As their name implies, they eat wood that is not dried out, perhaps even rotting, and consequently of little use to humans.

Archotermopsidae
Pacific Coast Dampwood Termite, Zootermopsis angusticollis, British Columbia
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Blattodea
Infraorder: Isoptera
Parvorder: Euisoptera
Family: Archotermopsidae
Engel et al., 2009
Genera

Archotermopsis
Zootermopsis

Taxonomy

In 2009, the five extant genera from the family Termopsidae (Archotermopsis, Hodotermopsis, Porotermes, Stolotermes, and Zootermopsis) were moved to a newly created family, Archotermopsidae[1][3][4] (Zootermopsis had previously been treated as part of the family Hodotermitidae),[5] so that the family Termopsidae now includes only fossil taxa: Asiatermes, Huaxiatermes, and Mesotermopsis (Early Cretaceous of China); Cretatermes carpenteri (Upper Cretaceous of Labrador); Lutetiatermes prisca (Upper Cretaceous amber of France); Paleotermopsis oligocenicus (Upper Oligocene of France); Parotermes insignis (Oligocene of Colorado); and Valditermes (incertae sedis).[1][3][6] The genera Porotermes and Stolotermes were later placed into a separate family, Stolotermitidae.[7]

As of April 6, 2022, the genus Hodotermopsis has been moved to the newly elevated family Hodotermopsidae, leaving Archotermopsidae with Archotermopsis and Zootermopsis as its only extant genera.[2]

References
  1. Engel, M.S.; Grimaldi, D.A.; Krishna, K. (2009). "Termites (Isoptera): their phylogeny, classification, and rise to ecological dominance". American Museum Novitates (3650): 1–27. hdl:2246/5969.
  2. Wang, Menglin; Hellemans, Simon; Šobotník, Jan; Arora, Jigyasa; Buček, Aleš; Sillam‐Dussès, David; Clitheroe, Crystal; Lu, Tomer; Lo, Nathan; Engel, Michael S.; Roisin, Yves; Evans, Theodore A.; Bourguignon, Thomas (2022-04-29). "Phylogeny, biogeography and classification of Teletisoptera (Blattaria: Isoptera)". Systematic Entomology. 47 (4): 581–590. doi:10.1111/syen.12548. ISSN 0307-6970.
  3. Constantino, Reginaldo (2016). "Termite Database".
  4. "Tree of Life Web Project, Termopsidae, Dampwood termites". 2003.
  5. Arnett, Ross H. Jr. (2000). American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico (2nd ed.). CRC Press. ISBN 0-8493-0212-9.
  6. "Archotermopsidae Family Information". BugGuide.net. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  7. Engel, Michael S. (2011). "Family-Group Names for Termites (Isoptera), redux". ZooKeys (148): 171–184. doi:10.3897/zookeys.148.1682. PMC 3264418. PMID 22287896.

Further reading


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