On National Science Day, know about new genus of termite found in India nearly after 25 years

Kozhikode: India observes February 28 every year as National Science Day. This day commemorates the discovery of the 'Raman effect', for which Indian physicist C V Raman won the Nobel Prize. Interestingly, when India observes this ‘day of discovery’ with all its sheen, it’s worth knowing about a new genus of termite discovered from Kerala. Interestingly, it is nearly 25 years gap since a new genus of termite has been discovered in India.

The researchers have named the genus Rinacapritermes. While the two species discovered under this genus have been named Rinacapritermes Silvius and Rinacapritermes Abundans.  

Rinacapritermes Silvius was identified from Thattekkad and Periyar forest stretch. While Rinacapritermes Abundans was identified from tea and rubber plantations in districts like Wayanad, Kozhikode and Kottayam.

Silvius in Latin means forest and the discovery of one species from the forest stretch resulted in naming it as Rinacapritermes Silvius. While the other was named Rinacapritermes Abundans as they were found in abundance. 

Both the species exists in soil and create no harm to humans. They rely on organic matters, decayed herbs for food. These species are important for our ecosystem as they break down organic materials and make soil nutrient-rich.

The team behind this discovery is Poovoli Amina (Zoological Survey of India: Western Ghat Regional Centre-Calicut University), Raj Mohan Keloth (Zoological Survey of India: M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata), KP Dinesh (Zoological Survey of India: Western Regional Centre, Pune), Asha Gopalan (Department of Animal Science, Central University of Kerala. Padanakkad, Kerala). The study has been published in the Zoosystema journal of the Paris Natural History Museum.
This team earlier had identified five species from Kerala. With the identification of two new species, the number of termite species in India touched 301. Among them, 75 species are spotted in Kerala.