The Identification of Worker Castes of Termite Genera from Soils of Africa and the Middle East

The first step in devising any control measure for a pest is to ensure that it is correctly identified. This is notoriously difficult with termites, a group of social insects whose abundance and diversity in tropical soils endow them with profound economic and environmental significance. Termites associated with agricultural and forestry crops in developing countries have until now only been identifiable by features found in their soldier and adult castes, both of which are commonly absent from the foraging and infesting populations, which themselves consist almost entirely of worker castes. Until Dr Sands’ pioneering studies, there were no keys to identify these workers, and it was impossible to determine which termites in an apparent infestation were pests needing to be controlled and which were harmless scavengers. As a result, control measures were often applied indiscriminately, with wasteful and environmentally undesirable applications of insecticides.

This book provides a key to the worker castes of all the genera of termites found in soils from Africa and the Middle East, together with a full set of detailed descriptions, accompanied by illustrations of their most important features. As a result, anyone with a working knowledge of insect anatomy will be able to identify termites found associated with crop damage. The book will thus be essential for workers in crop protection and entomology.