The soldier caste possesses the most robust and diagnostic external characters for termite identification. Unlike imagos, soldiers are present year around although is some species they are rare. In the soldierless species of the Apicotermitinae or when a soldier is not collected, the worker enteric valve is the single most diagnostic morphological character.
* I thank Liam Lynch and Hollis Woodard for generating many of photographs taken after 2011.
Enteric valves by genera*
No soldiers are known for the Apicotermitinae with the exception of the Apicotermes group (all from tropical Africa) and the Speculitermes group (all from Asia). HW = worker head width (mm).
* All names preceded by an "x" are preliminary names and cannot be used until I or someone else describe these taxa. I thank Dr. Ebenezer Onagbola for generating many of these photographs.
In the process of dissecting the termite gut to remove the enteric valve,
I have run across some interesting organisms, especially nematodes. I thank Dr. Rob Giblin-Davis for giving me an appreciation for these roundworms.
