P. robustus P. robustus was the first species to be described, having been published by Baron Kurt von Rosen as
Leucotermes robustus in 1913. Fossils of the species were recovered from the Middle Eocene,
Lutetian, "Blue Earth"
Baltic amber deposits, with three
imagos and four isolated wings known. Of the five known specimens, the original type series of fossils that von Rosen used in describing the species were held in the
Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie collections and are thought destroyed during
World War II. Von Rosen noted in his type description of the species that he was uncertain of its genus placement. Since then the species has been moved several first to
Leucotermes (Reticulitermes) robustus, then to
Reticulitermes robustus when
Reticulitermes was changed from a subgenus to a full genus. Finally the species was transferred to
Parastylotermes by Snyder and Emerson in 1949.
P. robustus and
P. krishnai are the only two species which are known from more than isolated wings.
P. washingtonensis P. washingtonensis, described by Snyder in 1931 as
Stylotermes washingtonensis, is the
type species for
Parastylotermes. The species, like
P. frazieri and
P. calico, is known from a single isolated wing. The front right fore-wing was found in sediments of the
Latah Formation near
Spokane, Washington. The formation is dated to the Upper Miocene placing as similar in age to both other western North American species, both being middle Miocene in age. The specimen is housed as specimen
MCZ 2943 ab in the
Museum of Comparative Zoology on the
Cambridge, Massachusetts grounds on
Harvard University. At an estimated length from the costal suture to the tip and a full , is one of the largest species of
Parastylotermes, with
P. calico estimated to have been slightly larger. The structuring of the median and cubitus veins are cited as the major differences between
P. washingtonensis and
P. calico. In the time after the species description and reexamination of the type specimen by Emerson in 1971 the tip half of fossil has been lost, with only the basal half surviving.
P. krishnai P. krishnai is known from two adults, which are
inclusions in amber, making it the second species known from amber inclusions. The
holotype amber specimen, number
Tad-277, is currently housed in the fossil collection of the
Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in
Lucknow, India and the second known adult,
Tad-96 is in the collections of the
American Museum of Natural History. The holotype is composed of a mostly complete adult of indeterminate sex, whereas
Tad-96 is a crushed adult, though enough features are present to strongly indicate its placement in
P. krishnai. Cambay amber dates to between fifty and fifty-two million years old, placing it in the Early to Mid Ypresian age of the Eocene, and was preserved in a
brackish shore environment. The amber formed from a
dammar type resin which is produced mainly by trees in the family
Dipterocarpaceae. The specimens were recovered from the Tadkeshwar lignite mine, located in
Gujarat State, during collecting trips in January 2009 and 2010. The fossils were first studied by paleoentomologists
Michael S. Engel and
David Grimaldi.and their 2011
type description of the species was published in the journal
ZooKeys. The
specific epithet krishnai is in honor of Kumar Krishna, considered a world authority on fossil and living termites. The species has a body length of approximately and a fore-wing length of making it the smallest species known.
P. krishnai also shows a distinct more basal placement of the Medial vein fork then seen in the other species with the wing tip preserved. A notable distinction between
P. robustus and
P. krishnai is difference in numbers of
antenna segments.
P. robustus has between sixteen and seventeen segments while
P. krishnai has only fourteen. ==References==