''Zophotermes'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

termite Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattode ...

in the

Isoptera Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattode ...

family

Rhinotermitidae Rhinotermitidae is a family of termites (Isoptera). They feed on wood and can cause extensive damage to buildings or other wooden structures. About 345 species are recognized, among these are severe pests such as ''Coptotermes formosanus'', ''Cop ...

known from two

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

fossils found in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The genus contains a single described species, ''Zophotermes ashoki'' placed in the subfamily Prorhinotermitinae.

History and classification

''Zophotermes'' is known from only two fossils, the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

adult and an additional set of wings, both of which are inclusions in transparent chunks of amber. The amber specimens, numbers "Tad-42" and "Tad-97" respectively, are both housed in the fossil collection of the

Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany The Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (formerly, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany; BSIP) is an autonomous institute constituted under the Department of Science and Technology (India), Department of Science and Technology, Government ...

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

, India. The holotype is composed of a mostly complete adult, though some areas show distinct compression from the amber after entombment and is of indeterminate sex. Four other specimens have been referred to ''Zophotermes'', Tad-278, Tad-95, Tad-304, and SEMC-F000157. All are placed into ''Zophotermes'' with the notation that they may be specimens of ''Z. ashoki'', but all are too incomplete for a confident placement to species. Cambay amber dates to between fifty and fifty-two million years old, placing it in the Early to Mid Ypresian age of the Eocene, and was preserved in a

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

shore environment. The amber formed from a dammar type resin which is produced mainly by trees in the family

Dipterocarpaceae Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus ''Dipterocarpus'', is derived from Greek (''di'' = two, ''pteron'' = wing and ''karpos'' = fru ...

. Four of the six ''Zophotermes'' specimens was recovered from a Tadkeshwar lignite mine, located in

Gujarat State Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth- ...

, during collecting trips in January 2009 while the last two were found in the same mine on a collecting trip in January 2010. The fossils were first studied by paleoentomologists Michael S. Engel of the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

and Hukam Singh of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany. Engel and Singh's 2011

type description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...

of the new genus and species was published in the online journal ''

ZooKeys ''ZooKeys'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering zoological taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography. It was established in 2008 and the editor-in-chief is Terry Erwin (Smithsonian Institution). It is published by Pensoft Publ ...

''. The genus name ''Zophotermes'' was coined as a combination of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

word ''zophos'' meaning "gloom" or "nether world" and '' Termes'', the type genus of

Termitidae Termitidae is the largest family of termites whose members are commonly known as the higher termites. They are evolutionarily the most specialised termite group, with their highly compartmentalized hindgut lacking the flagellated protozoans comm ...

. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''ashoki'' is in honor of paleontologist Ashok Sahni, a colleague of the authors and a "sage of Indian paleontology".

Description

''Zophotermes'' adults have an overall coloration which ranges from dark reddish brown on the thorax and

pronotum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ea ...

, dark brown on the abdomen, and very dark brown to black on the head with the antennae mouth parts being lighter brown. The holotype has a length of and sports wings that are . Adults have a narrow oval head, with small round compound eyes, and

ocelli A simple eye (sometimes called a pigment pit) refers to a form of eye or an optical arrangement composed of a single lens and without an elaborate retina such as occurs in most vertebrates. In this sense "simple eye" is distinct from a multi-l ...

which are separated from the compound eyes. The antennae are generally moniliform in structure, thus having an appearance similar to a string of beads. Due to the preservation of the specimen, the total number of antenna segments is unknown. The antenna segments which are visible show medium amounts of

seta In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for "bristle") are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Annelid setae are stiff bristles present on the body. Th ...

e. The legs have a moderate amount of setae and the tibia hosts three pairs of spines, called tibial spurs. Both the abdomen and the wing bases have scattered setae, and the membrane of the wings is pimplate.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q8074283 Termite genera Eocene insects Insects described in 2011 Fossil taxa described in 2011 Cenozoic insects of Asia Taxa named by Michael S. Engel