Ooceraea australis

Ooceraea australis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Dorylinae
Genus:	Ooceraea
Species:	O. australis
Binomial name
Ooceraea australis (Forel, 1900) Specimen Labels
Synonyms
Syscia australis edentata Forel, 1900

Heterick collected this species from under a rock on Mt Brown, near York in the western wheatbelt (WA). The workers were in enormous numbers and attached to one another by their mandibles, the insects falling away from the underside of the rock in huge, tangled skeins. The appearance of the colony, without any evidence of nest holes, suggested bivouacking in the manner of army ants. (as reported for the synonym O. edentatus, Heterick 2009).

Identification

Keys including this Species

• Key to Lioponera of the southwestern Australian Botanical Province
• Key to species of Ooceraea
• Key to the subfamilies of the southwestern Australian Botanical Province

Distribution

Heterick (2009), as reported for the synonym O. edentatus: occasionally collected around Perth, even in Perth suburbs that retain some native vegetation, but has also been recorded in the ACT, NSW and Qld.

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: -10.55° to -33.95000076°.

North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

• Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Australasian Region: Australia (type locality).

Distribution based on AntMaps

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.

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.

Castes

Images from AntWeb

Worker. Specimen code casent0249322. Photographer Estella Ortega, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by PSWC, Philip S. Ward Collection.

Syntype of Syscia australis edentata. Worker. Specimen code casent0902745. Photographer Will Ericson, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by NHMUK, London, UK.

Syntype of Syscia australis. Worker. Specimen code casent0902746. Photographer Will Ericson, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by NHMUK, London, UK.

Lectotype of Syscia australis. Worker. Specimen code casent0907057. Photographer Will Ericson, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by MHNG, Geneva, Switzerland.

Lectotype of Syscia australis edentata. Worker. Specimen code casent0907058. Photographer Will Ericson, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by MHNG, Geneva, Switzerland.

Nomenclature

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

• australis. Syscia autralis Forel, 1900b: 68 (w.) AUSTRALIA (Queensland).
  • Type-material: syntype workers (number not stated).
  • Type-locality: Australia: Queensland, Mackay (Turner).
  • Type-depositories: ANIC, MHNG, NHMB.
  • [Justified emendation of spelling to australis: Emery, 1911d: 12.]
  • Wheeler, G.C & Wheeler, J. 1973d: 205 (l.).
  • Combination in Cerapachys (Syscia): Emery, 1902c: 24;
  • combination in Ooceraea: Borowiec, M.L. 2016: 198.
  • Status as species: Emery, 1911d: 10; Wheeler, W.M. 1918a: 263 (redescription); Crawley, 1915a: 133; Brown, 1975: 22, 72 (as edentata); Taylor & Brown, 1985: 24; Taylor, 1987a: 17; Bolton, 1995b: 143; Heterick, 2009: 126.
  • Synonym of edentata: Brown, 1975: 22, 72; Taylor & Brown, 1985: 24; Taylor, 1987a: 17; Bolton, 1995b: 142; Zhou, Chen & Chen 2020: 142 (in key).
  • [Note: all these authors give edentata as senior synonym, but australis has priority. The error arose from Brown’s assumption that australis was a junior homonym, which is not the case.]
  • Distribution: Australia.
• edentata. Syscia australis var. edentata Forel, 1900b: 69 (w.) AUSTRALIA (Queensland).
  • Type-material: syntype workers (number not stated).
  • Type-locality: Australia: Queensland, Mackay (Turner).
  • Type-depositories: ANIC, MHNG.
  • [Misspelled as edentula by Emery, 1911d: 10.]
  • Combination in Cerapachys (Syscia): Emery, 1911d: 10.
  • Subspecies of australis: Emery, 1911d: 10; Wheeler, W.M. 1918a: 264.
  • Synonym of australis: Brown, 1975: 22, 72; Taylor & Brown, 1985: 24; Taylor, 1987a: 17; Bolton, 1995b: 142.
  • [Note: all these authors give edentata as senior synonym, but australis has priority. The error arose from Brown’s assumption that australis was a junior homonym, which is not the case.]

Type Material

• Syscia australis: Syntype, 6 workers, Mackay, Queensland, Australia, Australian National Insect Collection.
• Syscia australis: Syntype, worker(s), Mackay, Queensland, Australia, Musee d'Histoire Naturelle Genève.
• Syscia australis edentata: Syntype, 1 worker, Mackay, Queensland, Australia, Australian National Insect Collection.
• Syscia australis edentata: Syntype, 2 workers, Mackay, Queensland, Australia, Museum of Comparative Zoology.
• Syscia australis edentata: Syntype, worker(s), Mackay, Queensland, Australia, Musee d'Histoire Naturelle Genève.

References

• Borowiec, M.L. 2016. Generic revision of the ant subfamily Dorylinae (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). ZooKeys 608: 1-280 (doi:10.3897/zookeys.608.9427).
• Bharti, H., Rilta, J.S., Dhadwal, T. 2021. Two new species of Ooceraea (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Dorylinae) from India with ten-segmented antennae. ZooKeys 1010, 165–183 (doi:10.3897/zookeys.1010.58436).
• Borowiec, M.L. 2019. Convergent evolution of the army ant syndrome and congruence in big-data phylogenetics. Systematic Biology 68, 642–656 (doi:10.1093/sysbio/syy088).
• Brown, W. L., Jr. 1975. Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. V. Ponerinae, tribes Platythyreini, Cerapachyini, Cylindromyrmecini, Acanthostichini, and Aenictogitini. Search Agric. (Ithaca N. Y.) 5(1 1: 1-115 (page 22, Replacement name)
• Emery, C. 1911e. Hymenoptera. Fam. Formicidae. Subfam. Ponerinae. Genera Insectorum 118: 1-125 (page 10, Combination in Cerapachys (Syscia))
• Forel, A. (1902). Fourmis nouvelles d'Australie. Revue Suisse de Zoologie, 10: 405–548.
• Forel, A. 1895g. Nouvelles fourmis d'Australie, récoltées à The Ridge, Mackay, Queensland, par M. Gilbert Turner. Ann. Soc. Entomol. Belg. 39: 417-428 (page 422, Junior secondary homonym of australis, and hence first available replacement name.)
• Forel, A. 1900b. Ponerinae et Dorylinae d'Australie récoltés par MM. Turner, Froggatt, Nugent, Chase, Rothney, J.-J. Walker, etc. Ann. Soc. Entomol. Belg. 44: 54-77 (page 69, worker described; page 68, Junior synonym of australis)
• Heterick, B. E. 2009. A guide to the ants of South-western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 76:1-206.
• Heterick, B.E. 2021. A guide to the ants of Western Australia. Part I: Systematics. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 86, 1-245 (doi:10.18195/issn.0313-122x.86.2021.001-245).
• Heterick, B.E. 2022. A guide to the ants of Western Australia. Part II: Distribution and biology. Records of the Western Australian Museum, supplement 86: 247-510 (doi:10.18195/issn.0313-122x.86.2022.247-510).
• Moura, M.N., Cardoso, D.C., Cristiano, M.P. 2020. The tight genome size of ants: diversity and evolution under ancestral state reconstruction and base composition. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, zlaa135 (doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa135).

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

• Brown W. L., Jr. 1975. Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. V. Ponerinae, tribes Platythyreini, Cerapachyini, Cylindromyrmecini, Acanthostichini, and Aenictogitini. Search Agric. (Ithaca N. Y.) 5(1): 1-115.
• CSIRO Collection
• Forel A. 1900. Ponerinae et Dorylinae d'Australie récoltés par MM. Turner, Froggatt, Nugent, Chase, Rothney, J.-J. Walker, etc. Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique 44: 54-77.
• Heterick B. E. 2009. A guide to the ants of south-western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 76: 1-206.