Mesoponera australis

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online
Mesoponera australis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Ponerinae
Tribe: Ponerini
Genus: Mesoponera
Species: M. australis
Binomial name
Mesoponera australis
(Forel, 1900)

Pachycondyla australis casent0281891 p 1 high.jpg

Pachycondyla australis casent0281891 d 1 high.jpg

Specimen Labels

Identification

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: -5.43751° to -36.12102°.

     
North
Temperate
North
Subtropical
Tropical South
Subtropical
South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Australasian Region: Australia (type locality).
Indo-Australian Region: New Guinea.

Distribution based on AntMaps

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Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Countries Occupied

Number of countries occupied by this species based on AntWiki Regional Taxon Lists. In general, fewer countries occupied indicates a narrower range, while more countries indicates a more widespread species.
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Estimated Abundance

Relative abundance based on number of AntMaps records per species (this species within the purple bar). Fewer records (to the left) indicates a less abundant/encountered species while more records (to the right) indicates more abundant/encountered species.
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Elevation Range

Occurrence at collecting sites during elevational surveys of rainforest in the Eungella region, Queensland, Australia (Burwell et al., 2020).
Species Elevation (m asl)
200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Mesoponera australis 60-70 60-70 90-100 90-100
Shading indicates the bands of elevation where species was recorded.
Numbers are the percentage of total samples containing this species.

Biology

Castes

Images from AntWeb

Pachycondyla australis casent0907275 d 1 high.jpgPachycondyla australis casent0907275 p 1 high.jpgPachycondyla australis casent0907275 h 1 high.jpgPachycondyla australis casent0907275 l 1 high.jpg
Syntype of Ponera melanaria australisWorker. Specimen code casent0907275. Photographer Will Ericson, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by MHNG, Geneva, Switzerland.
Pachycondyla rubra casent0249171 h 1 high.jpgPachycondyla rubra casent0249171 p 1 high.jpgPachycondyla rubra casent0249171 d 1 high.jpgPachycondyla rubra casent0249171 l 1 high.jpg
Worker. Specimen code casent0249171. Photographer Ryan Perry, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by PSWC, Philip S. Ward Collection.

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

  • australis. Ponera melanaria r. australis Forel, 1900b: 62 (w.) AUSTRALIA (Queensland).
    • Type-material: syntype workers (number not stated).
    • Type-locality: Australia: Queensland, Mackay (Turner).
    • Type-depositories: ANIC, MHNG.
    • Forel, 1915b: 32 (q.); Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1971b: 1206 (l.).
    • Combination in Euponera (Mesoponera): Emery, 1901a: 46;
    • combination in Pachycondyla: Brown, in Bolton, 1995b: 303;
    • combination in Mesoponera: Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1971b: 1206; Schmidt, C.A. & Shattuck, 2014: 110.
    • Subspecies of melanaria: Emery, 1911d: 81; Forel, 1912n: 52; Forel, 1915b: 22; Viehmeyer, 1924a: 228; Chapman & Capco, 1951: 64.
    • Status as species: Taylor & Brown, 1985: 35; Taylor, 1987a: 39; Bolton, 1995b: 303.
    • Distribution: Australia.

Type Material

Description

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

  • Andersen A. N., M. Houadria, M. Berman, and M. van der Geest. Rainforest ants of the Tiwi Islands: a remarkable centr of endemism in Australia's monsoonal tropics. Insectes Sociaux 59: 433-441.
  • Chapman, J. W., and Capco, S. R. 1951. Check list of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Asia. Monogr. Inst. Sci. Technol. Manila 1: 1-327
  • Forel A. 1912. Einige neue und interessante Ameisenformen aus Sumatra etc. Zool. Jahrb. Suppl. 15: 51-78.
  • Janda M., G. D. Alpert, M. L. Borowiec, E. P. Economo, P. Klimes, E. Sarnat, and S. O. Shattuck. 2011. Cheklist of ants described and recorded from New Guinea and associated islands. Available on http://www.newguineants.org/. Accessed on 24th Feb. 2011.
  • King J. R., A. N. Andersen, and A. D. Cutter. 1998. Ants as bioindicators of habitat disturbance: validation of the functional goup model for Australi's humid tropics. Biodiversity and Conservation 7: 1627-1638.
  • Lucky A., E. Sarnat, and L. Alonso. 2011. Ants of the Muller Range, Papua New Guinea, Chapter 10. In Richards, S. J. and Gamui, B. G. (editors). 2013. Rapid Biological Assessments of the Nakanai Mountains and the upper Strickland Basin: surveying the biodiversity of Papua New Guinea’s sublime karst environments. RAP Bulletin of Biological Assessment 60. Conservation International. Arlington, VA.
  • Schnell M. R., A. J. Pik, and J. M. Dangerfield. 2003. Ant community succession within eucalypt plantations on used pasture and implications for taxonomic sufficiency in biomonitoring. Austral Ecology 28: 553–565.
  • Snelling R. R. 1998. Insect Part 1: The social Hymenoptera. In Mack A. L. (Ed.) A Biological Assessment of the Lakekamu Basin, Papua New Guinea, RAP 9. 189 ppages