Tetramorium kraepelini

Japanese Name

Kebuka-shiwa-ari

Forel, A. (1905) Ameisen aus Java. Gesammelt von Prof. Karl Kraepelin, 1904. Jahrbuch der Hamburgischen Wissenschaftlichen Anstalten [Mitteilungen aus dem Naturhistorischen Museum] 22: 1-26.

Total length of workers around 2 mm. Body color yellow to yellowish brown, gaster sometimes darker. Antennae 12-segmented; scapes short, their apices far from reaching the posterior corners of head. Anterior margin of clypeus without median notch. Lateral margin of mesosoma not sinuate in dorsal view. Propodeal spines long, spiniform, curved upward. Petiolar node with rounded posterior angle. Head and mesosoma covered with irregular reticulations.

Bolton (1977) described a taxon which he named T. tanakai from Ishigaki I., Ryukyus, Japan. He considered it to be "closely related" to T. kraepelini. The cited characters distinguishing T. tanakai were the color pattern (with head and gaster blackish-brown) and the shape of the petiolar node (dorsal length greater than height of tergal portion in profile). We do not consider these differences sufficient to define a species separate from T. kraepelini, and thus here suspend recognition of T. tanakai as a distinct species. T. kraepelini is found in grassland and woodland margins; it nests under stones.

Kyushu (southern part), Nansei Is; Mainland China, SE Asia.