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species
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Amblyopone silvestrii
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Japanese Name
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Nokogiri-hari-ari
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Original Reference
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Wheeler, W.M. (1928) Ants collected by Professor F. Silvestri in Japan and Korea. Bollettino del Laboratorio di Zoologia generale e agraria del R. Istituto Superiore agrario di Portici 22: 96-125.
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Synonym
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Stigmatomma silvestrii Wheeler, 1928,
Amblyopone silvestrii (Wheeler): Brown, 1960
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Description
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Total length of workers around 3.5 - 4.5 mm. Body color yellowish brown to reddish brown. The largest Japanese Amblyopone species, distinguished from the rest by its 12-segmented antennae and mandibular dentition, with numerous denticles double-ranked denticles. The frontal lobes cover the antennal insertions and are well separated.
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Remarks
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A. silvestrii apparently feeds mainly on centipedes (Masuko, 1981). Masuko (1986) discovered the peculiar habit of larval haemolymph feeding, whereby queens wound larvae non-lethally and imbibe their haemolymph as food. Distributed quite widely from near Sapporo in Hokkaido (Onoyama,1989a) to Iriomote Island, but relatively rare.
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Distribution
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Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, Tsushima I., Nansei Is; Korean Peninsula, Taiwan.
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References
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- Masuko, K. (1981). Predatory behavior of some forest floor dwelling ants. . Insects and Nature, 16(3), 19-25. .
- Masuko, K. (1986). Larval hemolymph feeding: a nondestructive parental cannibalism in the primitive ant Amblyopone silvestrii Wheeler (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). . Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol., 19, 249-255.
- Onoyama, K. (1989). Three ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) new to Hokkaido, Japan. . Jpn. J. Ent., 57, 604.
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Editor
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Original text by Keiichi Onoyama. Revised by Masashi Yoshimura. English translation by Keiichi Onoyama, edited by Robert W. Taylor.
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