Rhytidoponera punctigera

Rhytidoponera punctigera
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Ectatomminae
Tribe:	Ectatommini
Genus:	Rhytidoponera
Species:	R. punctigera
Binomial name
	Rhytidoponera punctigera; Crawley, 1925 Specimen Labels

Identification

Keys including this Species

Key to Rhytidoponera of the southwestern Australian Botanical Province

Distribution

Heterick (2009) - Its main distribution is in the wetter areas of the Darling Range and Swan coastal plain.

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: -32.25° to -33.60972°.


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.

Biology

Castes

Worker

Images from AntWeb


Worker. Specimen code casent0281825. Photographer Shannon Hartman, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by NHMUK, London, UK.

Nomenclature

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

punctigera. Rhytidoponera punctigera Crawley, 1925b: 582 (w.) AUSTRALIA (Western Australia).
- Type-material: syntype workers (number not stated).
- Type-locality: Australia: Western Australia, Manjimup, no. 459 (J. Clark).
- Type-depositories: NHMB, OXUM.
- Status as species: Clark, 1936: 71 (redescription); Brown, 1958g: 204; Taylor & Brown, 1985: 46; Taylor, 1987a: 70; Bolton, 1995b: 380; Heterick, 2009: 140.
- Distribution: Australia.

Type Material

Syntype, 3 workers, Ludlow, Western Australia, Australia, Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Syntype, worker(s), Manjimup, Western Australia, Australia, Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

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

Description

Worker

Length 9.5 mm.

Dark reddish brown, gaster a shade less dark, funiculi, legs, and apex of gaster dark red.

Almost entirely glabrous, except the tarsi. There are a few short erect hairs on the inner surface of the apex of the tibiae. Funiculi slightly pubescent.

Head very slightly longer than broad, almost as broad behind as in front. Sides as far as the eyes almost straight, the occipital angles rounded. Terminal border of mandibles two-fifths longer than the basal and minutely dentate. Clypeus broad, moderately convex, the anterior border forming a wide oblique angle. Frontal carinae more than three-fifths as wide at their narrowest part as in front. Eyes rather small, prominent, behind the centre of the sides. Occiput without sign of crest, but the border is slightly more prominent at the sides than at the middle. The scapes reach rather more than one-third of their length beyond the occiput.

Pronotum from above almost square, the posterior angles more prominent. At the inferior angles is a small tooth, and at the sides an oblique impression. Pro-mesonotal suture deep; in profile there is an impression at this suture and between the meso- and epinotum. Base of epinotum concave at its junction with the mesonotum, then teebly convex, sloping gradually to the declivity which is slightly flattened. Petiole from above oval, narrower in front, with a deep impressed line down the centre. In profile the apex is pointed, the anterior border concave and the posterior convex, so that it inclines forward. Beneath in tront is a small tooth.

Postpetiole broader than long, in most specimens it has a faint impressed line down its basal third; the first segment of gaster slightly longer, the constriction between deep.

Shining; mandibles finely striate with indistinct scattered points ; scapes longitudinally striate with scattered points; clypeus coarsely rugose-punctate. Vertex and the space between the frontal carinae longitudinally striate; sides, back, and underside of head with a fine ground-sculpture. In addition, the head is covered with cireular shining punctures, widely spaced between the frontal carinae and on the vertex, closer together elsewhere.

The central anterior two-thirds of the pronotum are transversely striate, the rest of its upper surface and that of the mesonotum coarsely reticulate-punctate. The emargination between the meso- and epinotum very finely transversely striate. Declivity transversely striate, the rest of the dorsum of epinotum reticulate-punctate, but more superficially than on the rest of thorax. There is a fine ground-sculpture between the punctures on the whole of thorax. The sides are covered with ground-sculpture and have a few superficial punctures only. Upper surface of petiole finely transversely striate with a few punctures, anteriorly almost smooth, sides punctate.

Postpetiole covered with fine transverse arched striae with a few small superficial points which are more abundant on the apical half. First segment of gaster similar, but the striae finer and becoming concentric on the apical border. The remaining segments reticulate only. Femora circularly reticulate-striate, tibiae longitudinally striate with small superficial punctures.

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

Heterick B. E. 2009. A guide to the ants of south-western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 76: 1-206.