CRETACEOUS INSECTS FROM LABRADOR 
3. A NEW GENUS AND SPECIES OF TERMITE. 
(ISOPTERA: HODOTERMITIDAE) 1 
By Alfred E. Eimerson 
Department of Zoology, The University of Chicago, and Depart- 
ment of Entomology, American Museum of Natural History. 
Introduction 
The origin and dispersal of numerous higher taxa of termites by 
mid-Cretaceous times have been postulated from present geographical 
distributions and the existence of fairly advanced types in early to 
middle Tertiary deposits (Emerson, 1955, MSS). With the excep- 
tion of a few extinct genera, the Oligocene termite fauna of Baltic 
amber includes several genera that are characteristic of present warm 
temperate climates of Europe and Asia. A recently discovered trop- 
ical termite fauna in Mexican amber of Oligocene-Miocene age is 
generically closely similar to the living fauna of the same region 
(Emerson, MSS). Heretofore, the earliest known fossil termites 
were found in Eocene deposits of North America, Australia, and 
Europe. The few specimens of Eocene age belong to the Mastoter- 
mitidae (Emerson, 1965) and Kalotermitidae (Emerson, MSS), 
but early Oligocene fossils from several deposits including Baltic 
amber belong to the Hodotermitidae, Mastotermitidae, Kaloter- 
mitidae, and Rhinotermitidae. The author and others have considered 
the fauna of Baltic amber to be of upper Eocene age (Emerson, 
1955 )> but the general concensus now places this fauna in the lower 
Oligocene. The lack of the most advanced Termitidae from early 
Tertiary strata is probably due to the general scarcity or absence of 
this family in temperate climates in the northern hemisphere, and it 
is predicted that abundant fossils from tropical regions will prove 
the existence of numerous advanced genera of Termitidae in Creta- 
ceous times. Indeed the tropical fauna, of Mexican amber on the 
Oligocene-Miocene border proves the presence of living genera of 
various families that include the Termitidae at that time (Emer- 
son, MSS). 
The discovery of a fossil termite wing from late Early Cretaceous 
or early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) associated with a warm 
temperate flora in Labrador is a considerable extension of accurately 
determined specimens of the order Isoptera backward in geological 
This investigation was supported by the National Science Foundation 
(Grant No. G-25146). 
276 
