Greetings forum! Today i want to make a post a bit different than usual, and share with you a few beautiful macro pictures of an interesting termite species by Spanish photographer Paco Alarcòn (check out his blog for more ant pics: https://pacoalarcon-...blogspot.com/). Impressed by his skill in picturing ants i sent him several termite specimen to try his hands on, and here's the results!
Today's species is an unidentified Syntermes from Colombia. This is a genus of large to very large termites widespread in south America (with a single species estending northwards to Panama) that are notable for their habit to open forage on the forest floor for leaf litter and plant detritus; its species sport all-male monomorphic soldiers and bimorphic workers (female minors and male majors) that however become fully active members of the colony one molt before reaching adult size.
And now for Paco's pics, of course shared with permission:
A lateral wiew of a soldier of this Syntermes species. Large and robust, these are agile and well sclerified termites with an impressive bite force. Scale bar 5 mm.
The same soldier pictured dorsally. Note the conspicuous three pairs of defensive spines on the thorax, present in many (tough not all) members of the genus. Scale bar 5 mm.
The soldier's head. Beside fighting with the impressive pair of toothed mandibles, these soldiers also secrete a clear defensive fluid for their fontanelle (that small pore on the forehead). This fluid, produced in a specialized gland inside the head called the frontal gland, act as a wound-active poison designed to seep in the gashes inflicted on an opponent's cuticle by the soldier's bites.
Another perspective of the head, showing well the trilobed labrum with a hyaline tip and the frontal gland and its reservoir barely visible behind the fontanelle opening as a lighter area.
Edited by ItalianTermiteMan2.0, Today, 9:09 AM.
