Pseudomyrmex tenuissimus

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Pseudomyrmex tenuissimus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Pseudomyrmecinae
Genus: Pseudomyrmex
Species: P. tenuissimus
Binomial name
Pseudomyrmex tenuissimus
(Emery, 1906)

Pseudomyrmex tenuissimus casent0173781 profile 1.jpg

Pseudomyrmex tenuissimus casent0173781 dorsal 1.jpg

Specimen labels

Synonyms
At a Glance • Ant-plant specialist  

Identification

P. tenuissimus can be distinguished from Pseudomyrmex subtilissimus by its darker color, smaller size, and longer petiole. It differs from Pseudomyrmex spiculus by its smaller size and more elongate head (compare HW and CI).

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 19.58333° to -22.809943°.

 
North
Temperate 		North
Subtropical 		Tropical South
Subtropical 		South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Neotropical Region: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil (type locality), Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Greater Antilles, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela.

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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Biology

Although P. tenuissimus is the most common member of the P. subtilissimus group, most collections appear to based on scattered foragers. In Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia, I have encountered workers foraging on vegetation in a variety of habitats including rain forest, rain forest edge, old field/pasture, and tropical dry forest. I have seen nests only twice: one was a small colony containing a single dealate queen, seven workers, and brood, in the dead, fibrous twig of a woody liana, in tropical dry forest (northern Colombia); the other was a nest of 13 workers, 16 alate queens, and brood in the dead twig of a thorny vine at the edge of disturbed second-growth rain forest (Edo. Barinas, Venezuela). Mann (1916:426) recorded a colony from Maranhao, Brazil "taken from beneath a loose piece of bark", an unusual nest-site for Pseudomyrmex as Mann himself remarks.

Castes

Queen

Images from AntWeb

Pseudomyrmex tenuissimus casent0173782 head 1.jpgPseudomyrmex tenuissimus casent0173782 profile 1.jpgPseudomyrmex tenuissimus casent0173782 profile 2.jpgPseudomyrmex tenuissimus casent0173782 dorsal 1.jpgPseudomyrmex tenuissimus casent0173782 label 1.jpg
Queen (alate/dealate). Specimen code casent0173782. Photographer April Nobile, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by ALWC, Alex L. Wild Collection.

Nomenclature

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

  • tenuissimus. Pseudomyrma subtilissima subsp. tenuissima Emery, 1906c: 119 (w.) BRAZIL. Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1973d: 207 (l.). Combination in Pseudomyrmex: Kempf, 1972a: 224. Raised to species and senior synonym of culmicola: Ward, 1989: 432.
  • culmicola. Pseudomyrma culmicola Forel, 1912g: 27 (w.) TRINIDAD. Combination in Pseudomyrmex: Kempf, 1972a: 217. Junior synonym of tenuissimus: Ward, 1989: 432.

Unless otherwise noted the text for the remainder of this section is reported from the publication that includes the original description.

Description

Worker

Ward (1989) - measurements (n=30, except for FI where n=29). HL 0.S2-0.93, HW 0.48-0.53, MFC 0.0l1-0.033, CI 0.56-0.62, OI 0.50-0.58, REL 0.48-0.53, REL2 0.84-0.92, OOI 0.22-0.89, VI 0.85-0.90, FCI 0.023-0.066, SI 0.39-0.46, SI2 0.44-0.54, FI 0.52-0.60, PDI 1.58-2.14, MPI 0.022-0.055, NI 0.55-0.64, PLI 0.54-0.66, PWI 0.49-0.60, PPWI 1.05-1.34.

diagnosis. Similar to P. spiculus (q.v.) except as follows: distinctly smaller, head more elongate (HW 0.48-0.53, CI 0.56-0.62). Basal face of propodeum flatter, forming a more distinct angle with the dec1ivitous face. Body color more uniformly brown to grey-brown, the pronotum, petiole, and postpetiole only slightly, or not at all, contrastingly lighter.

Type Material

Ward (1989) - Holotype (unique syntype) worker, Corumba, Matta Grosso [do Sui], Brazil, 15.viii.1900, (Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, Genoa) [Examined].

Pseudomyrma culmicola Holotype (unique syntype) worker, Trinidad (Forel) (Musee d'Histoire Naturelle Genève) [Examined].

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

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  • Brandao, C.R.F. 1991. Adendos ao catalogo abreviado das formigas da regiao neotropical (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Rev. Bras. Entomol. 35: 319-412.
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  • INBio Collection (via Gbif)
  • Kempf, W.W. 1972. Catalago abreviado das formigas da regiao Neotropical (Hym. Formicidae) Studia Entomologica 15(1-4).
  • Longino J. T. 2013. Ants of Honduras. Consulted on 18 Jan 2013. https://sites.google.com/site/longinollama/reports/ants-of-honduras
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  • Longino J. et al. ADMAC project. Accessed on March 24th 2017 at https://sites.google.com/site/admacsite/
  • Luna Bello G. O. 2005. Composicion y estructura de la comunidad de hormigas a lo largo de un gradiente de intensificacion agricola en zonas de bosque tropical humedo en la region autonoma Atlantico Sur, Nicaragua. PhD Universidad Centroamericana, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnologia del Ambiente carrera de Ecologi y Desarrollo. 127 pages
  • Maes, J.-M. and W.P. MacKay. 1993. Catalogo de las hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) de Nicaragua. Revista Nicaraguense de Entomologia 23.
  • Mann W. M. 1916. The Stanford Expedition to Brazil, 1911, John C. Branner, Director. The ants of Brazil. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 60: 399-490
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  • Pires de Prado L., R. M. Feitosa, S. Pinzon Triana, J. A. Munoz Gutierrez, G. X. Rousseau, R. Alves Silva, G. M. Siqueira, C. L. Caldas dos Santos, F. Veras Silva, T. Sanches Ranzani da Silva, A. Casadei-Ferreira, R. Rosa da Silva, and J. Andrade-Silva. 2019. An overview of the ant fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of the state of Maranhao, Brazil. Pap. Avulsos Zool. 59: e20195938.
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