Archotermopsidae
Archotermopsidae is a family of termites that primarily inhabit rotten stumps and logs in various regions, including Australia, Japan, South Africa, North America, and Chile. This family, which includes genera such as Archotermopsis and Zootermopsis, was previously classified under the Termopsidae family. Archotermopsidae termites live in large colonies that can consist of hundreds to millions of individuals, with social structures divided into castes such as workers, soldiers, and reproductive termites. Each colony is established by a single pair of reproductive termites, the king and queen, with the queen capable of laying up to 30,000 eggs daily.
Queens can grow significantly larger than worker termites, often becoming immobile as they focus on egg production. Workers are responsible for nurturing the young, gathering food, and maintaining the colony, while soldiers protect against predators like centipedes, spiders, and larger animals such as anteaters. Despite the threats they face, king and queen termites can live for over ten years, contributing to the longevity of their colonies. Notable species within this family include the Pacific Coast dampwood termite and the Arizona dampwood termite.
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Subject Terms
Archotermopsidae
Archotermopsidae termites live in rotten stumps and logs in Australia, Japan, South Africa, North America, and Chile.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Blattodea
Family: Archotermopsidae
Genus: Various (see below)
Species: Various (see below)
The Pacific dampwood termites in the Archotermopsidae family were previously classified in the Termopsidae family. Genera include Archotermopsis and Zootermopsis.
Like other termites, Archotermopsidae termites live in large colonies of hundreds or even millions of termites. Within these colonies, each tiny, white, blind termite is brought into the world in a particular position. These positions are known as castes. Within termite colonies, individuals may be worker termites, reproductive termites, or soldier termites.
Each colony is started as a single pair of reproductive termites. These two termites become the king and queen of their colony. Their job is to reproduce enough offspring to have a functional colony.
The queen termite spends nearly all of her time pregnant or laying eggs. In the process of doing this, she may become as much as five or six times the length of other termites and much, much wider than her workers. A single queen termite can produce as many as 30,000 eggs in a single day. Swollen with eggs, a full-grown queen termite is about 5 1/2 inches (14 centimeters) long, while other termites are generally about one inch (2 1/2 centimeters) long.
As the queen grows and grows, eventually she is unable to move. At that point, she rests in one place while producing eggs. She is cared for by her workers and her king. As she lays her eggs, they are each carried away by worker termites to nursery chambers where they develop, hatch, and grow. The worker termites feed them and raise them until they can become part of the social structure of the nest.
The caste of each of the young is determined by the queen. When producing eggs, the queen also produces special chemicals which are swallowed by the workers and later passed on to the young during feeding. Since the queen controls how much of each chemical she produces, she controls how many workers, reproductives, and soldiers are added to the colony with each new set of young.
In addition to raising the young, worker termites are also in charge of gathering food. The workers leave the colony's nest to find rotten wood and lumber. Although the nests are constructed in rotten stumps and logs, the termites seek wood from other stumps, logs, and branches and bring the wood back to the colony.
Some large animals, such as anteaters and aardvarks, prey on termites, but more often, the colonies are threatened by centipedes, spiders, and army ants. Soldier termites can fight off these smaller predators, but attacks from anteaters and aardvarks are generally life-threatening to the entire colony.
Like other termites, Archotermopsidae termites can have extremely long lifespans. King and queen termites may live to be more than 10 years old.
Species include:
Pacific Coast dampwood termite Zootermopsis angusticollis
Arizona or wide-headed dampwood termite Zootermopsis laticeps
Nevada termite Zootermopsis nevadensis
Abominable mountain termite Archotermopsis wroughtoni
Bibliography
"Archotermopsis." Termites of the World, termites.myspecies.info/content/archotermopsis. Accessed 15 May 2024.
Engel, Michael S., et al. "Termites (Isoptera): Their Phylogeny, Classification, and Rise to Ecological Dominance. (American Museum Novitates, No. 3650)." American Museum of Natural History, 25 June 2009, digitallibrary.amnh.org/items/80e570b5-e9e9-4a82-8755-9ec9682ce12b. Accessed 15 May 2024.
Wang, Menglin. "Phylogeny, Biogeography and Classification of Teletisoptera (Blattaria: Isoptera)." Systematic Entomology, vol. 47, no. 4, Oct. 2022, pp. 581–590. Royal Entomological Society, doi.org/10.1111/syen.12548. Accessed 15 May 2024.