Loracus Prime was the prime planet in the Loracus system, located in the Gagarin Radiation Belt.
The planet's atmosphere contained purple and pink clouds of gas and it was known to have over five thousand subspecies of termites. Among those subspecies were the Loracus devil mite and the spitting termite. The planet was visited by A.E. Hodgkin prior to 2151 and was crucial for the development of Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development. (ENT: "Strange New World")
Background information[]
The planet was presumably located less than ninety light years from Earth, as Hodgkin would have visited it before Enterprise visited Risa, which at ninety light years from Earth was the furthest Humans had traveled at the time.
Star Trek: Star Charts (p. 60) falsely states the planet explored in "Strange New World" to be Loracus Prime, which actually is a misinterpretation. More so, the planet was later identified as Archer IV.
Cutler's prop book about Loracus Prime insects is the Handbook of Exobiology. When the episode aired, many viewers thought that Cutler said "Arrakis Prime", in reference to the Dune Chronicles, but this was subsequently disproved.
According to StarTrek.com, this planet was located in the Alpha Quadrant. [1]