Cardiocondyla yamauchii

Japanese Name

Usukiiro-hadaka-ari

Terayama, M., (1999) Taxonomic studies of the Japanese Formicidae, Part 6. Genus Cardiocondyla Emery. Memoirs of the Myrmecological Society of Japan 1: 99-107.

Total length of workers around 1.5 - 2 mm. Body yellow, essentially uniformly colored, except for a pair of brownish spots on the gaster. Head rectangular; occipital border almost straight, but slightly concave in the middle. Scapes not reaching occipital border of head. Promesonotal area depressed, almost straight in profile; pronotal humeri slightly angulate in dorsal view. Metanotal groove distinct. Dorsal outline of propodeum roundly convex in profile, highest at anterior third; propodeal spines longer than their basal width.

This species resembles C. wroughtonii, but the differences in coloration between them are consistent. Indeed, the worker descriptions applicable here are otherwise identical. The males are dimorphic; alate and ergatoid. The latter have falcate mandibles like those of C. wroughtonii. The nests of C. yamauchii are found in plant cavities, like grass stems, in open areas, grassland and forest margins. To date. The species is known only from the northern part of Okinawa Island.

Okinawa I.