Nanotermes isaacae

Nanotermes Temporal range: Ypresian PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
N. isaacae holotype
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Blattodea
Family:	Termitidae
Genus:	†Nanotermes
Species:	†N. isaacae
Binomial name
Nanotermes isaacae Engel & Grimaldi, 2011

Nanotermes is an extinct genus of termites in the Isoptera family Termitidae known from only one Eocene fossil found in amber of the Cambay Basin (Gujarat, India). The genus contains a single described species, Nanotermes isaacae placed tentatively in the subfamily Termitinae.

Nanotermes is known from a single fossil, the holotype adult, which is an inclusion in a transparent chunk of Cambay amber. The amber specimen, "Tad-262", is currently housed in the fossil collection of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in Lucknow, India. The holotype is composed of a mostly complete adult of indeterminate sex and minute overall size. Cambay amber dates to between 50 and 52 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 holotype specimen was recovered from the Tadkeshwar lignite mine, located in Gujarat State, during a collecting trip on 17–22 January 2010. The fossil was first studied by paleoentomologists Michael S. Engel and David Grimaldi, both of the American Museum of Natural History. Engel and Grimaldi's 2011 type description of the new genus and species was published in the online journal ZooKeys. The genus name Nanotermes was coined as a combination of the Greek word nanos meaning "small" and Termes, the type genus of the Termitidae. This is in reference to the size of the adult, which is noted as possibly the smallest termite adult known. The specific epithet isaacae is in honor of Charlotte Isaac, who discovered the holotype and "many other interesting inclusions". Nanotermes is the oldest member of the Termitidae to be described to date, with the prior oldest being from the Late Oligocene, 20 million years younger than the Cambay ambers.