Paratrechina ryukyuensis

Japanese Name

Ryuukyuu-ameiro-ari

Terayama, M. (1999) Taxonomic studies of the Japanese Formicidae, part 5. Genus Paratrechina Motschoulsky. Memoirs of the Myrmecological Society of Japan 1: 49-64.

Total length of workers around 2 mm. Head, mesosoma and 1st gastral tergite brown; 2nd to terminal gastral segments dark brown. Antennal scapes with moderately abundant subdecumbent pubescence and with erect hairs, which are longer than the width of a scape. Very similar to P. flavipes and P. yaeyamensis: mesosoma darker than that of P. flavipes (where it is usually yellow to yellowish brown - lighter than head and gaster in P. flavipes); gaster uniformly dark brown except for the 1st tergite, which is lighter brown (2nd and 3rd tergites each with yellowish brown anterior half and dark brown posterior half in P. yaeyamensis). Erect hairs on antennal scapes longer than those of P. flavipes; the pubescence much more abundant than in P. yaeyamensis. Female with head and mesosoma brown and gaster largely a uniformly dark brown.

The species nests in leaf litter, rotting wood and the soil, in grasslands and forests.

Nansei Is.