Ooceraea hainingensis

Ooceraea hainingensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Dorylinae
Genus:	Ooceraea
Species:	O. hainingensis
Binomial name
	Ooceraea hainingensis; Gao, Long, Liu, Liu, Ran, Lacy & Kronauer, 2024

The type specimens (and only known specimens) of Ooceraea hainingensis are from a colony collected from the Yuemiao Mountain, Haining City of Zhejiang Province in southeastern China (30.372187°N, 120.810766°E). The collection site has relatively high canopy cover with low light penetration (Fig. 4A). The temperature at the time of collection was 20 °C. One queen and seventeen worker specimens were collected from the soil in a bamboo forest (Fig. 4B). Ooceraea hainingensis is a close relative of Ooceraea biroi.

Photo Gallery

Gao et al. (2024), Figure 1. Ooceraea hainingensis, holotype worker A head in full-face view B body in lateral view C body in dorsal view.
Gao et al. (2024), Figure 2. Differences between Ooceraea hainingensis and O. biroi workers. A, O. hainingensis mesosoma in dorsal view. B, O. hainingensis petiole and postpetiole in lateral view. C, O. biroi mesosoma in dorsal view. D, O. biroi petiole and postpetiole in lateral view. The red arrows indicate the significant differences between the two species.
Gao et al. (2024), Figure 3. Ooceraea hainingensis dealate queen, non-type specimen. A, head in full-face view. B, body in lateral view. C, body in dorsal view.
Gao et al. (2024), Figure 4. The ecology of Ooceraea hainingensis. A, habitat at the type locality of O. hainingensis from Haining, Zhejiang Province in China. B, live colony of O. hainingensis reared in the lab. The red arrow indicates the dealate queen.

Identification

Ooceraea hainingensis is readily distinguishable from other described Ooceraea species by the following characteristics:

9-segmented antenna
eyes absent in the worker caste
the promesonotum slightly convex
the promesonotal suture and metanotal groove obvious
the subpetiolar process prominent and anteroventrally directed like a thumb with sublinear posteroventral margin.

Ooceraea hainingensis is generally similar to Ooceraea biroi, but these species differ in the shape of the subpetiolar process, promesonotal suture, and metanotal groove (Fig. 2).

Keys including this Species

Key to Ooceraea of China

Distribution

Only known from the type locality.

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 30.4° to 30.4°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: Gao et al., 2024

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Palaearctic Region: China (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.

Biology

Castes

Nomenclature

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

hainingensis. Ooceraea hainingensis Gao et al., 2024: 104, figs. 1-3 (w.dq.) CHINA (Zhejiang).

Type Material

Holotype: one worker ant; point mounted. Original label: “China, Zhejiang, Haining, Qianjiang village, Yuemiao Mountain, 30.372187°N, 120.810766°E, nesting in the subterranean zone, 10.VI.2022, Haoyu Liu leg.”.
Paratypes: five workers from the same colony as the holotype. These type specimens are deposited in the Insect Collection of Guangxi University (GXU), Nanning, Guangxi, China.

Description

References

Gao, Q., Long, J., Liu, C., Liu, H., Ran, H., Lacy, K.D., Kronauer, D.J.C. 2024. Ooceraea hainingensis sp. nov.: A new Chinese Ooceraea (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Dorylinae) species with a dealate queen, closely allied to the queenless clonal raider ant O. biroi. ZooKeys 1205, 101–113 (doi:10.3897/zookeys.1205.118358).