''Glyptotermes'' is a genus 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

Kalotermitidae Kalotermitidae (drywood termites), are a basal family with a roughly cosmopolitan circumtropical distribution. With 21 genera and 419 species, it is the second most diverse termite family after the Termitidae. The majority of members are functio ...

. With 127 species worldwide as of 2013, is the family's most speciose genus, and the second most speciose in the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

after ''

Cryptotermes ''Cryptotermes'' is a genus of termites in the family Kalotermitidae. It is one of the economically most significant genera of drywood termites. Species There are about 70 species. Species include: * '' Cryptotermes abruptus'' Scheffrahn and Kre ...

''. Entomologist Rudolf H. Scheffrahn argued in 2018 that the paucity of ''Glyptotermes'' records from throughout much of the Caribbean Basin and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

was caused by a field sampling bias toward non-kalotermitids. The first records of this genus from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, and much of the Lesser Antilles were provided by Scheffrahn in 2019. ''Glyptotermes'' species have a rather high wood moisture requirement and, therefore, are not found in arid parts of the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeog ...

and are likewise, not economically important. Although the

imago In biology, the imago (Latin for "image") is the last stage an insect attains during its metamorphosis, its process of growth and development; it is also called the ''imaginal'' stage ("imaginal" being "imago" in adjective form), the stage in wh ...

morphology is quite conserved, the head capsules of ''Glyptotermes'' soldiers are variously adorned with protuberances and rugosities, and robust mandibles that facilitate their identification.

Selected species

* '' Glyptotermes canellae'' (Müller, 1873) *'' Glyptotermes ceylonicus'' Holmgren, 1911 * '' Glyptotermes chiraharitae'' Amina & Rajmohana, 2016 *'' Glyptotermes dilatatus'' (Bugnion & Popoff, 1910) * '' Glyptotermes hickmani'' Rudolf H. Scheffrahn, 2021 *'' Glyptotermes minutus'' Kemner, 1932

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16571891 Termite genera Glyptotermes