Termite Web

Pericapritermes is a genus of small termites that has undergone many revisions and reclassifications. Originally there was just the genus Capritermes, but dozens of species are now recognized under Pericapritermes, distributed throughout the Orient, although originally they were thought to be confined to the African continent. The soldiers are distinctive in having odd shaped, curved, and elongated mandibles with a very large head size relative to the body size.

These various species of Pericapritermes are very hard to distinguish from each other as they are very similar in appearance. They all build small epigeal nests which are simple in architecture, and may look like hardened, packed mounds of humus with numerous chambers, most likely comprised of a mixture of soil and their excrement.

Pericapritermes are mainly humus feeding termites and do not seem to attack wood, feeding on plant debris in the first 10 cm of soil. Colonies are small but numerous in ideal habitats, like equatorial rainforest, for example. Believe it or not, there is a species I’ve observed to build their nests within the walls of trapjaw ant nests, normally housing a very small colony comprising not more than a few thousand individuals. The alates typically swarm in the daytime, after or during light rain.

The soldiers do not seem to play a large role in the defense of the colony, because in my observation, they are too few in number and do not have well developed aggressive instincts. So to make up for that deficiency (in an evolutionary sense), apparently the workers are quite aggressive and may well take on additional defense duties. Although some records claim that Pericapritermes soldiers secrete a sticky white fluid when provoked, I’ve not observed this yet.