Mirocapritermitinae

{{Short description|Subfamily of termites}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = Pericapritermes nitobei soldier.jpg

| image_caption = Pericapritermes nitobei

| taxon = Mirocapritermitinae

| authority = Kemner, 1934

| type_genus = Mirocapritermes Holmgren, 1914

| subdivision_ranks = Genera

| subdivision =

}}

Mirocapritermitinae is a subfamily of termites in the family Termitidae with 14 recognized genera.{{Cite web |title=Isoptera Species File - Mirocapritermitinae Kemner, 1934 |url=https://isoptera.speciesfile.org/otus/1113825/overview |access-date=2025-05-24 |website=isoptera.speciesfile.org |language=en}} Members of this subfamily were previously assigned to the Pericapritermes-group Termitidae, which was formally regrouped into the revived subfamily per Hellemans et al., 2024.{{Cite journal |last=Hellemans |first=Simon |last2=Rocha |first2=Mauricio M. |last3=Wang |first3=Menglin |last4=Romero Arias |first4=Johanna |last5=Aanen |first5=Duur K. |last6=Bagnères |first6=Anne-Geneviève |last7=Buček |first7=Aleš |last8=Carrijo |first8=Tiago F. |last9=Chouvenc |first9=Thomas |last10=Cuezzo |first10=Carolina |last11=Constantini |first11=Joice P. |last12=Constantino |first12=Reginaldo |last13=Dedeine |first13=Franck |last14=Deligne |first14=Jean |last15=Eggleton |first15=Paul |date=2024-08-07 |title=Genomic data provide insights into the classification of extant termites |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-51028-y |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=6724 |doi=10.1038/s41467-024-51028-y |issn=2041-1723}} Species are distributed widely throughout the tropical Old World, and are predominantly soil-feeders or soil-wood interface feeders. The soldiers have highly adapted snapping mandibles, most of which are asymmetric and twisted, allowing them to snap extremely quickly against their main predators, ants. Pericapritermes nitobei has been recorded to snap at velocities between 89.7 and 132.4 meters per second within 8.68 microseconds, setting the record as the current fastest biological movement known.{{Cite journal |last=Kuan |first=Kuan-Chih |last2=Chiu |first2=Chun-I. |last3=Shih |first3=Ming-Chih |last4=Chi |first4=Kai-Jung |last5=Li |first5=Hou-Feng |date=2020-06-11 |title=Termite’s Twisted Mandible Presents Fast, Powerful, and Precise Strikes |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66294-1 |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=9462 |doi=10.1038/s41598-020-66294-1 |issn=2045-2322}}