Tetraponera volucris

Tetraponera volucris
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Pseudomyrmecinae
Genus:	Tetraponera
Species:	T. volucris
Binomial name
	Tetraponera volucris; Ward, 2001

Ward (2001) - Known only from the holotype, an old specimen collected in Singapore by C. F. Baker. This would probably have been during 1917-1918 when Baker, then professor of agronomy at the University of the Philippines, took a year's leave of absence to be the assistant director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens (Essig 1927).

Identification

Ward (2001) - The queen of this species can be recognised by the elongate head, shiny puncticulate integument, tridentate clypeal margin, and widely separated frontal carinae. It is perhaps most closely similar to Tetraponera vivax, but differs from that species by the afore-mentioned clypeal and frontal carinal characters, as well as various other traits such as larger eyes, equally spaced mandibular dentition, absence of a malar pit, more slender profemur, elongate postpetiole, and more abundant pilosity on the side of the head.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 1.283333333° to 1.283333333°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Indo-Australian Region: Singapore (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.

volucris. Tetraponera volucris Ward, 2001: 647, figs. 106, 107 (q.) SINGAPORE.

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

Description

Queen

HW 1.21, HL 1.92, LHT 1.08, CI 0.63, FCI 0.27, REL 0.29, REL2 0.45, SI 0.53, SI3 1.16, FI 0.54, PLI 0.49, PWI 0.44, LHT/HW 0.89, CSC 3.

Head elongate, subrectangular; masticatory margin of mandible with four blunt, equally spaced teeth; anterior clypeal margin furnished with three stout teeth protruding well beyond the anterolateral margins; frontal carinae widely separated, the distance between them almost twice the maximum scape width; median lobes of the antennal sclerites expanded laterally and covering most of the antennal insertions, when head is observed in full-face view; malar pit absent; eyes of modest size (see indices); lateral pronotal margins weakly defined; pro femur relatively robust; petiole moderately long and slender, with a differentiated anterior peduncle and node; postpetiole slightly longer than broad, narrowing anteriorly; metabasitarsal sulcus present as a thin impressed line, occupying about half the length of the basitarsus, not associated with a darkened patch of cuticle. Integument smooth and shiny, with scattered fine punctures mostly about 0.010 mm in diameter or less; punctures on most of head and mesosoma separated by several diameters, with interspaces smooth and shining; punctures denser and coarser on malar area, the lower portion of which is rugulopunctate. Long, standing pilosity common on anterior half of head (including the sides), venter of head, mesosoma dorsum, petiole, postpetiole and gaster, but sparse on upper half of dorsum of head (two pairs, posteromesial to the compound eye). Appressed pubescence scattered over body, most dense on posterior portion of katepisternum and on gastric tergites (abdominal tergites IV-VII) where most hairs separated by about their lengths or less. Dark brownish-black, antennae, protibia and tarsi medium-brown.

Type Material

Holotype. Alate queen, Singapore, no date, Baker (Museum of Comparative Zoology). Labeled as follows: “Singapore/Coli. Baker” “9209” and “Gift ofW./M. Wheeler”.

References

Wang, W.Y., Soh, E.J.Y., Yong, G.W.J., Wong, M.K.L., Benoit Guénard, Economo, E.P., Yamane, S. 2022. Remarkable diversity in a little red dot: a comprehensive checklist of known ant species in Singapore (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) with notes on ecology and taxonomy. Asian Myrmecology 15: e015006 (doi:10.20362/am.015006).
Ward, P. S. 2001. Taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of the ant genus Tetraponera (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Oriental and Australian regions. Invertebr. Taxon. 15: 589-665 (page 647, figs. 106, 107 queen described)