family

FORMICIDAE

subfamily

Dolichoderinae

genus

Technomyrmex


ITIS

 

Technomyrmex albipes

Hymenoptera On-Line

 

Technomyrmex albipes

FORMIS

 

Technomyrmex albipes

Harvard MCZ

 

Technomyrmex albipes truncicolus Weber, 1943

Technomyrmex albipes vitiensis Mann, 1921



species

Technomyrmex albipes


Japanese Name

Ashijiro-hirafushi-ari

Original Reference

Smith, F. (1861) Catalogue of hymenopterous insects collected by Mr. A.R. Wallace in the Islands of Ceram, Celebes, Ternate, and Gilolo. Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Zoology 6: 36-48.

Synonym

Formica (Tapinoma) albipes F. Smith (F. Smith, 1861) , Technomyrmex albipes (F. Smith) (Emery, 1888) , Technomyrmex detorquens Walker (Okamoto, 1966) ,

Description

Total body length of workers around 2.5 mm. Body black to blackish brown; antennal funiculi and tarsi pale yellowish white. Head as long as wide. Mandibles with about 15 serrated teeth, the apical two distinctly the largest. Eyes, viewed in profile, situated almost at midlength of head capsule. Antennal scapes relatively long, distinctly microreticulate. Pronotum, mesonotum and propodeum each with a pair of erect hairs.

Remarks

T. albipes inhabits dry grasslands and forest margins, and nests in rotting wood, stumps or twigs. The nests are polycalic, and colonies may have large numbers of workers, the populations often reaching several millions. The reproductive castes include ergatoid females and males in addition to alates of both sexes (Yamauchi et al., 1988). Alate females and males are present during March and June. This is the dominant ant species in mangrove woods on the Nansei Islands (Terayama, 1989). It has been found in botanical gardens in Chiba and Shizuoka Prefectures.

Distribution

Kyushu (the southern part), Nansei Is; tropical and subtropical Asia, Oceania, northern Australia; North and South America (introduced).

References

  • Yamauchi et al , 1988
  • Terayama, M. (1989). Ant community of the mangrove swamps of Japan. . Bull. Toho Gakuen, (3), 1-11. .
  • Catalogue of hymenopterous insects collected by Mr. A.R. Wallace in the Islands of Ceram, Celebes, Ternate, and Gilolo. Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Zoology 6: 36-48.
  • Okamoto, K. (1966). Ants frrom Shikoku, Japan (5). Gensei (16): 5-8. (In Japanese.)
  • Emery, C. (1888). Uber den sogenannten einiger Ameisen. Zeitschrift fur Wissenschaftliche Zoologie 46: 378-412.
  • Yamauchi, K., T. Furukawa, K. Kinomura, H. Takamine & K. Tsuji (1991). Secondary polygyny by inbred wingless sexuals in the dolichoderine ant Technomyrmex albipes. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 29: 313-319.

Editor

Original text by Mamoru Terayama and Masao Kubota. English translation by Mamoru Terayama, edited by Robert W. Taylor.