Ant Diversity of New Caledonia

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online

The Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia, located 1200 km off the central Queensland coast, is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. Most of its exceptionally diverse biota occurs nowhere else. It includes a highly significant ant fauna that has radiations of both Gondwanan (e.g. Monomorium and Rhytidoponera) and Indo-Malayan (e.g. Lordomyrma, Vollenhovia) origins. This fauna is strongly associated with rainforest habitat, with diverse radiations occurring in all habitat strata – in the litter (cryptic species of Discothyrea and Vollenhovia), on the ground (epigaeic species of Lordomyrma, Rhytidoponera and Monomorium), and in trees (arboreal species of Camponotus).

The last compilation of the New Caledonian ant fauna was in 1987, reporting 101 native species. Since then, local research has nearly doubled this count. Many of the species have very narrow distributions, so it is likely that many more species remain uncollected. With the type specimens of described species being scattered in different museum collections, and the taxonomic status of many species-rich genera (e.g. Monomorium, Pheidole) remaining uncertain, it is clear that knowledge of this fauna is incomplete.

During a recent PhD study on the impacts of anthropogenic fires and invasive ants on native ant diversity in New Caledonia, 183 species (171 natives) were collected using a range of sampling techniques. Native species represented 7 subfamilies and 32 genera, with the most species-rich genera being Monomorium (33 species), Lordomyrma (19), Pheidole (16), Rhytidoponera (13) and Camponotus (12). Images of all these species are provided here, and specimens are deposited at the CSIRO Tropical Ecology Research Centre collection in Darwin, Australia.

See also the New Caledonia checklist of described species.


Acropyga

Adelomyrmex

Amblyopone

Anochetus

Anoplolepis

Brachymyrmex

Calyptomyrmex

Camponotus

Cardiocondyla

Carebara

Crematogaster

Cryptopone

Discothyrea

Dolichoderus

Eurhopalothrix

Hypoponera

Iridomyrmex

Leptogenys

Key to the Leptogenys of New Caledonia

Leptomyrmex

Lioponera

Key to the Lioponera of New Caledonia

Lioponera dumbletoni

Lordomyrma

Meranoplus

Monomorium

Nylanderia

Ochetellus

Odontomachus

Orectognathus

Paraparatrechina

Paratrechina

Pheidole

Polyrhachis

Rhytidoponera

Rogeria

Solenopsis

Strumigenys

Tapinoma

Technomyrmex

Tetramorium

Vollenhovia

Wasmannia