Leptanilla japonica

Japanese Name

Yamato-mukashi-ari

Baroni Urbani, C. (1977) Materiali per una revisione della sottofamiglia Leptanillinae Emery. Entomologica Basiliensia 2: 427-488.

Total length of workers around 1 mm. Mandibles each with 4 teeth. Apical segment of antenna longer than total length of preceding 2 segments (10th + 11th). Posterior margin of head almost straight in frontal view. First gastral segment with almost parallel sides, not narrowed anteriorly in dorsal view.

Similar to L. morimotoi and L. sp. 6, but distinguished in having 4 teeth on the mandible (where morimotoi and sp. 6 have 3). The second tooth, counting from the apex, is sometimes small, low and obscure. L. japonica nests in small hollows in the soil (Kondoh, pers. comm.). Masuko (1989) reported that workers sometimes feed on exudations of larval haemolymph (LHF: larval haemolymph feeding), secreted from a special gland on the 3rd larval abdominal segment, and that the queens are nourished by LHF alone.

Honshu (Manazuru, Kanagawa Pref.; Kii Nagashima, Mie Pref. [Naoki Maekawa et al. leg.])