''Anacanthotermes'' is an
Old World
The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...
genus of termites in the
Hodotermitidae
The harvester termites (from Greek ὁδός (hodós), travelling; Latin '' termes'', woodworm) are an ancient, Old World family of termites, the Hodotermitidae. They are distinguished by the serrated inner edge of their mandibles, and their func ...
. They are found in deserts and semideserts of North Africa, the Middle East and Southwest Asia, including
Baluchistan
Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...
and southern India.
Wings of the
alate
Alate (Latin ''ālātus'', from ''āla'' (“wing”)) is an adjective and noun used in entomology and botany to refer to something that has wings or winglike structures.
In entomology
In entomology, "alate" usually refers to the winged form o ...
s are glabrous and lack the microstructures like micrasters, microsetae or rods found in more modern Isoptera.
In the driest and most arid locations in Africa it is generally replaced by ''
Psammotermes''.
Species
The genus contains some 13 species:
* ''
A. ahngerianus''
(Jacobson)
* ''
A. baeckmannianus''
(Vasiljev)
* ''
A. baluchistanicus''
Akhtar, 1974
* ''
A. iranicus''
Ravan et al., 1994
* ''
A. macrocephalus''
(Desneux, 1906)
* ''
A. murgabicus''
(Vasiljev)
* ''
A. ochraceus''
(Burmeister)
* ''
A. saudiensis''
Chhotani, et al., 1982
* ''
A. septentrionalis''
(Jacobson)
* ''
A. turkestanicus''
(Jacobson)
* ''
A. ubachi''
(Navas)
* ''
A. vagans''
(Hagen, 1858)
* ''
A. viarum''
(König, 1779)
References
Termite genera
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