Ponera leae

Ponera leae
	Ponera leae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Ponerinae
Tribe:	Ponerini
Genus:	Ponera
Species:	P. leae
Binomial name
	Ponera leae; Forel, 1913 Specimen labels
Synonyms
	Ponera caledonica Wilson, 1957; Ponera excedra Wilson, 1957; Ponera leae norfolkensis Wheeler, W.M., 1935; Ponera leae oculata Wheeler, W.M., 1927;

Ponera leae is the southern-most species of Ponera in Australia and nearby areas. It occurs in a wide range of habitats from dry sclerophyll woodlands to rainforest and has even been found in pine plantations. It is found on the ground in a variety of situations including leaf litter, rotten wood and between and under stones. While P. leae is probably native throughout most of its current range, it is highly likely that it has been relatively recently introduced into New Zealand.

At a Glance

• Limited invasive

Identification

Moderately small size, distinctly 4-segmented antennal club. Pronotal width 0.29 - 0.30 mm; scape index 80-86; entire petiolar node when viewed from directly above forming almost an exact half-circle. There is an incised mesometanotal suture on the worker mesosomal dorsum and the palpal formula in both workers and queens is Maxillary 2: Labial 2.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: -15.28333378° to -43.01666667°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Australasian Region: Australia (type locality), Lord Howe Island, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Norfolk Island.

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.

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)
Species	200	400	600	800	1000	1200
Ponera leae				0-10
Shading indicates the bands of elevation where species was recorded. Numbers are the percentage of total samples containing this species.

Biology

This is an abundant and adaptable ant within its range. It is found among the more common ant species in most of the localities in southern and eastern New Caledonia, extending from dry, semideciduous lowland forest at Chapeau Gendarme to the cool, wet clould forest on the summit ridge of Mt. Mou. Colonies are generally small. At Chapeau Gendarme they were found nesting exclusively in large rotting logs, while in the moister forests of Mt. Mou and Ciu they occurred mostly in the soil beneath rocks. Solitary workers were found foraging during the day on the forest floor.

Wilson (1957) noted the following: Two workers were found with a small amount of brood in a small cavity in the undersurface of a rock set deeply in the soil. These individuals were rather sluggish and when prodded with the tip of forceps, rolled up and feigned death for a short while, a behavioral response common in other species of Ponera. All of the other collections of leae (as caledonica) were made by filtering the ants from masses of leaf litter and soil in a Berlese funnel. The collections at Mt. Mou and Chapeau Gendarme were made in relatively dry, semi-deciduous, valley-pocket forests, while that at Ciu was in moister tropical evergreen forest.

Castes

Males are unknown.


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Images from AntWeb


Worker. Specimen code casent0172337. Photographer April Nobile, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by ANIC, Canberra, Australia.

Phylogeny

Ponera

Ponera cf. sinensis (China)

Ponera exotica

Ponera sp. (Malaysia)

Ponera leae

	Ponera clavicornis

	Ponera (Seychelles)

	Ponera incerta

	Ponera petila

Ponera swezeyi

	Ponera coarctata

	Ponera pennsylvanica

Relationships among selected species of Ponera based on Branstetter & Longino (2019). The focus of this study was the species Ponera exotica and Ponera pennsylvanica.

Nomenclature

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

leae. Ponera leae Forel, 1913g: 175 (w.) AUSTRALIA (Tasmania). Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1971b: 1210 (l.). Senior synonym of caledonica, excedra, norfolkensis: Taylor, 1967a: 89.
oculata. Ponera leae subsp. oculata Wheeler, W.M. 1927i: 130, fig. 1 (w.q.) AUSTRALIA. [Junior primary homonym of oculata Smith, F. 1858b: 93, above.] Replacement name: norfolkensis Wheeler, W.M. 1935c: 72.
norfolkensis. Ponera leae subsp. norfolkensis Wheeler, W.M. 1935c: 72. [Also described as new by Wheeler, W.M. 1935g: 13.] Replacement name for oculata Wheeler, W.M. 1927i: 130. [Junior primary homonym of oculata Smith, F. 1858b: 93.] Junior synonym of leae: Taylor, 1967a: 89. See also: Taylor, 1960: 179.
caledonica. Ponera caledonica Wilson, 1957b: 361, fig. 2 (w.q.) NEW CALEDONIA. Junior synonym of leae: Taylor, 1967a: 89.
excedra. Ponera excedra Wilson, 1957b: 364 (w.q.) AUSTRALIA. Junior synonym of leae: Taylor, 1967a: 89

Type Material

Ponera leae: Holotype, worker, Tasmania, Australia, Musee d'Histoire Naturelle Genève.
Ponera leae oculata: Syntype, worker(s), queen(s), Norfolk Island, Australia.
Ponera exedra: Holotype, worker, Arthurs Seat at McCrae, Victoria, Australia, Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Ponera exedra: Paratype, worker, Pymble, New South Wales, Australia, Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Description

Holotype Worker. HW 0.40 mm, HL 0.52 mm, SL 0.32 mm, CI 77, SI 80, PW 0.30 mm, petiole height 0.31 mm, petiole node length 0.18 mm, dorsal petiole width 0.25 mm. Mandibles with three well developed teeth occupying approximately the apical two-fifths of the masticatory border; the remainder of the border occupied by an indeterminate number of minute denticles. Eyes minute, consisting of a single ommatidium. Antennal club distinctly 4-jointed, considerably longer than the entire remainder of the funiculus. Head seen in full-face view with nearly straight sides, feebly concave occipital border. Petiolar node in side view massive, subrectangular, tapering only very slightly dorsally; seen from directly above, its dorsal surface forming an almost exact half-circle, the posterior face concave. Subpetiolar process somewhat reduced, its apex right-angular.

Dorsum of head densely punctate and subopaque to opaque; sides of head also densely punctate, but the punctures relatively shallow and the surface feebly shining. Entire dorsal and lateral surfaces of the alitrunk covered by puncturation or shagreening of variable density but everywhere shallow and feeble, so that the surface varies from feebly to strongly shining. The dorsal petiolar surface and gastric tergites are also feebly sculptured and their surfaces overall feebly shing.

Body pilosity sparse, being limited almost entirely to a few hairs on the anterior clypeal border, posterodorsal border of the petiolar node, and entire surfaces of the gastric tergites. Appendages mostly bare, except for terminal surfaces of tibiae and tarsal segments. Body and appendage pubescence everywhere dense, very short and predominantly ferruginous; appendages light brownish to clear yellow.

References

Branstetter, M.G., Longino, J.T. 2022. UCE phylogenomics of New World Cryptopone (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) elucidates genus boundaries, species boundaries, and the vicariant history of a temperate–tropical disjunction. Insect Systematics & Diversity 6(1): 6:1-23 (doi:10.1093/isd/ixab031).
Burwell, C.J., Nakamura, A. 2020. Rainforest ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) along an elevational gradient at Eungella in the Clarke Range, Central Queensland coast, Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 125: 43-63.
Forel, A. (1913). Fourmis de Tasmanie et d'Australie récoltées par MM. Lae, Froggatt etc. Bulletin de la Société Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, (5)49: 173–195.
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).
Smith, F. (1858). Catalogue of hymenopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Part 6. Formicidae. London: British Museum. pp. 1–216.
Taylor, R. W. 1967a. A monographic revision of the ant genus Ponera Latreille (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Pac. Insects Monogr. 13: 1-112.
Wheeler, G. C.; Wheeler, J. 1971b. Ant larvae of the subfamily Ponerinae: second supplement. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 6 64: 1197-1217 (page 1210, larva described)
Wheeler, W. M. (1927). The ants of Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 62: 121–153.
Wheeler, W. M. (1935). Check list of the ants of Oceania. Occasional Papers of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, 11: 1–56.
Wheeler, W. M. (1935). Myrmecological notes. Psyche (Cambridge), 42: 68–72.
Wilson, E. O. 1957b. The tenuis and selenophora groups of the ant genus Ponera (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 116: 355-386.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

CSIRO Collection
Forel A. 1913. Fourmis de Tasmanie et d'Australie récoltées par MM. Lae, Froggatt etc. Bull. Soc. Vaudoise Sci. Nat. 49: 173-195
Hoffmann, B. D., R. Graham, and D. Smith. 2017. Ant species accumulation on Lord Howe Island highlights the increasing need for effective biosecurity on islands. NeoBiota 34:41-52.
Taylor R. W. 1960. Taxonomic notes on the ants Ponera leae Forel and Ponera norfolkensis (Wheeler) (Hymenoptera - Formicidae). Pac. Sci. 14: 178-180.
Taylor R. W. 1967. A monographic revision of the ant genus Ponera Latreille (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Pacific Insects Monograph 13: 1-112.
Taylor R. W. 1987. A checklist of the ants of Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) Division of Entomology Report 41: 1-92.
Taylor R. W., and D. R. Brown. 1985. Formicoidea. Zoological Catalogue of Australia 2: 1-149.