''Coptotermes elisae'', the Papuan plantation termite, is a species of

termite Termites are a group of detritivore, detritophagous Eusociality, eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of Detritus, decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, Plant litter, leaf litter, and Humus, soil humus. They are dist ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Heterotermitidae Heterotermitidae, or the subterranean termites, is a family of termites that was elevated to family level from the subfamily '' Heterotermitinae'', formerly nested in ''Rhinotermitidae Rhinotermitidae, sensu novo are a family (biology), family ...

. It is native to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, and Southeast Asia, where it attacks and kills living trees and damages structural timbers.

Description

Termites are social insects with a caste system, and individuals are either workers, soldiers, or reproductives. A ''C. elisae'' worker measures between in length and has a rounded head with large eyes. The

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 e ...

is broad and both the head and it are densely hairy. The antennae have 20 to 22

flagellomere An antenna (plural: antennae) is one of a pair of appendages used for sensing in arthropods. Antennae are sometimes referred to as ''feelers''. Antennae are connected to the first one or two segments of the arthropod head. They vary widely in ...

s (segments). A soldier is rather larger than a worker and has a rounded head and large incurved

mandible In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

s. Its antennae usually have 16 flagellomeres. The fontanelle, a pore gland on the forehead that secretes a milky fluid, can easily be seen from above. The pronotum is long with about 70

seta In biology, setae (; seta ; ) are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Depending partly on their form and function, protostome setae may be called macrotrichia, chaetae, ...

e (bristles), mostly near the margins, and the

mesothorax The mesothorax is the middle of the three segments of the thorax of hexapods, and bears the second pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the mesonotum (dorsal), the mesosternum ( ventral), and the mesopleuron (lateral) ...

metathorax The metathorax is the posterior of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the third pair of legs. Its principal sclerites ( exoskeletal plates) are the metanotum (dorsal), the metasternum (ventral), and the metapleuron (lateral ...

, and

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

are also densely bristly. These features help distinguish this species from other termites found in the same region.

Distribution and habitat

''C. elisae'' is native to the forests of New Guinea, where it is widely distributed, and is also found in New Ireland. Since it has been determined that ''C. curvignathus'' is a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of ''C. elisae'', its range has been extended northwards through Indonesia and the Philippines to the Malay Peninsula, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Ecology

''C. elisae'' primarily attacks both young and old evergreen trees in the genus ''

Araucaria ''Araucaria'' (; original pronunciation: .ɾawˈka. ɾja is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. While today they are largely confined to the Southern Hemisphere, during the Jurassic and Cretaceous they were glo ...

'', the klinkii (''A. klinkii'') and the hoop pine (''A. cunninghamii''), but is also known to attack other

hosts A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County * Host Island, in the Wilhelm Archipelago, Antarctica People * ...

such as the taun tree (''Pometia pinnata''), ''

Hopea ''Hopea'' is a genus of plants in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It contains some 113 species, distributed from Sri Lanka and southern India to the Andaman Islands, Myanmar, southern China, and southward throughout Malesia to New Guinea. They are ...

'' trees, the

papaya The papaya (, ), papaw, () or pawpaw () is the plant species ''Carica papaya'', one of the 21 accepted species in the genus '' Carica'' of the family Caricaceae, and also the name of its fruit. It was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within ...

(''Carica papaya''), and the

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South and Southeast As ...

(''Mangifera indica'') A parasitic fungus, '' Antennopsis gayi'', is sometimes found growing on the body of ''C. elisiae'' and the

rove beetle The rove beetles are a family (biology), family (Staphylinidae) of beetles, primarily distinguished by their short elytra (wing covers) that typically leave more than half of their abdominal segments exposed. With over 66,000 species in thousand ...

''Coptophysa obesa'' is sometimes found living inside the termite colony.

Damage

''C. elisae'' is considered to be an extremely severe pest. The termites enter a tree through an injury to the bark and tunnel into the interior, where they eat the wood and often cause the death of the host. In plantations of hoop pine, groups of up to 20 trees may be infected and die, attacked by termites foraging from one central nest via tunnels to neighbouring trees. Trees older than 21 years seem less prone to attack. In Malaysia, ''C. elisae'' has made the establishment of plantations of certain exotic tree species very difficult, attacking every tree in some new plantations of ''

Pinus A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as c ...

'' and ''Araucaria''. Control may be attempted by excavating the nest and removing the queen reproductive, or in new plantations, by the use of

explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An ex ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16752094 Termites Insects described in 1905 Insects of New Guinea