Coptotermes shanghaiensis Xia & He, 1986

Chen, Guan-Yu, Ke, Yun-Ling, Liang, Wei-Ren & Li, Hou-Feng, 2020, Redescription of Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae), with three new synonyms from China, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (Acta. Ent. Mus. Natl. Pragae) 60 (2), pp. 599-608 : 607

Coptotermes shanghaiensis Xia & He, 1986

Type locality. China: Shanghai [中 Ṟ 上海].

Type material examined. In the original description, the collection information of type specimens is: China: Shanghai [上海], (soldier, alate, and worker), No: 09003454, 26-VI-1965, G.-J. CIJൾඇ [Ḵ国ẁ]. We did not find this type specimen at SEM, but find a specimen with the same collection locality, date, and collector as following: China: Shanghai [上海ÿ化局], 26-VI-1965, G.-J. CIJൾඇ [Ḵ国ẁ], No. 2303, Cop. Orthognathus, Coptotermes orthognathus = (P.) shanghainesis Xia et He, 1986 [new label], 37A. We suggest this specimen was derived from the type specimens.

Additional material examined. CHINA: Shanghai [上海], 26-VI-1965, G.-J. CIJൾඇ, 8A, 1N,>10W, No: 3855; Shanghai [上海], 30-VII-1965,>10S,>10W,No: 3683; Shanghai [上海], 9-V-1957, 7S,>10W, No:1845.

Remarks. According to Xංൺ & Hൾ (1986), C. shanghaiensis could be differentiated from C. formosanus based on three characters of winged imagos: smaller wing length than that of C. formosanus ; narrower pronotum width than that of C. formosanus ; and narrower head width than that of C. formosanus . One diagnostic character of soldier caste was mentioned: elliptical or rounded head, in contrast to the pear-shaped head of C. formosanus . No soldier specimen of C. shanghaiensis from the type location was available for this study. The winged imagos of C. shanghaiensis can be distinguished from C. formosanus by the morphometric variation of pronotum ( Table 4). Although no difference between C. shanghaiensis and C. formosanus was found in the setae distribution and other characters examined by us, the taxonomic status of C. shanghaiensis needs further investigation. Soldier and winged imagos collected from multiple colonies in the type locality and their molecular sequences are required.