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Vollenhovia penetrans
| Vollenhovia penetrans | |
|---|---|
| |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Myrmicinae |
| Tribe: | Crematogastrini |
| Genus: | Vollenhovia |
| Species: | V. penetrans |
| Binomial name | |
| Vollenhovia penetrans (Smith, F., 1857)
| |
The only mention of V. penetrans in the Indian region is that of an AntWeb specimen (CASENT0280819) verified by Bolton in 1976 (Bharti et al. 2016). This Indan specimen was collected from the Andaman Islands by G. Rogers and housed at NHMUK and agrees well with the holotype (Smith 1857). The species is unfortunately only known from the queen caste, which is characterized by a finely longitudinally striate head and mesosomal dorsum with oblong punctures. Vollenhovia taxonomy is almost entirely based on the worker caste, which makes the current lack of information on V. penetrans workers problematic. The worker caste is known in Vollenhovia brevicornis and Vollenhovia pertinax from Southeastern Asia, two species that are considered extremely similar to V. penetrans to the point of being considered potential synonyms (Wang et al. 2022). As mentioned before, known workers from the V. penetrans complex resemble Vollenhovia oblonga laevithorax among the taxa treated in this study, while they differ from all the others by having a largely smooth area with sparse punctation near the posterior margin of the head and an almost entirely smooth dorsal surface of the mesosoma and metasoma. It is therefore unclear whether V. penetrans and V. oblonga laevithorax records from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands may refer to a single species. (Akbar et al., 2023)
Identification
Since it is only know from the queen caste, this species is left out of the Vollenhovia species keys for the region where it occurs.
Distribution
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Latitudinal Distribution Pattern
Latitudinal Range: 2.547988° to 2.547988°.
| North Temperate |
North Subtropical |
Tropical | South Subtropical |
South Temperate |
- Source: AntMaps
Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Indo-Australian Region: Borneo (type locality), Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore.
Oriental Region: India.
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. |
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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
Castes
Only known from the queen caste.
Images from AntWeb
    
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| Holotype of Vollenhovia penetrans. Queen (alate/dealate). Specimen code casent0901383. Photographer Will Ericson, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. | Owned by OUM, Oxford, UK. |
Nomenclature
The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.
- penetrans. Atta penetrans Smith, F. 1857a: 77 (q.) BORNEO. Combination in Aphaenogaster: Dalla Torre, 1893: 104; in Vollenhovia: Donisthorpe, 1932c: 450.
The following notes on F. Smith type specimens have been provided by Barry Bolton (details):
Atta penetrans
Holotype alate queen (right wings missing) in Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Labelled “SAR.”
Description
Unless otherwise noted the text for the remainder of this section is reported from the publication that includes the original description (Smith, 1857) page 107, as Atta penetrans.
Queen
Length - 4 lines.
Black and shining; head longitudinally finely striated; the mouth, clypeus and antennae, ferruginous. Thorax: elongate-ovate, the prothorax anteriorly and the legs, ferruginous; the thorax above with oblong punctures which run into striae; an impunctate line in the middle of the mesothorax anteriorly; the metathorax truncated, the truncation smooth and shining; wings sub hyaline, with a fuscous line along the costal nervure; the apical margins of the wing with a fringe of very fine white hairs. Abdomen: elongate-ovate, dark rufo-piecous, the apical margins of the segments brighter; the nodes of the peduncle globose and punctured.
Hab. Borneo (Sarawak).
References
- Akbar, S. A., Bharti, H., Schifani, E., Wachkoo, A. A. 2023. Overview of the ant genus Vollenhovia (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in India and Sri Lanka, with an illustrated key and the description of a new species. European Journal of Taxonomy 908, 77-107 (doi:10.5852/ejt.2023.908.2339).
- Bolton, B. 1995b. A new general catalogue of the ants of the world. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 504 pp. (page 423, catalogue)
- Dalla Torre, K. W. von. 1893. Catalogus Hymenopterorum hucusque descriptorum systematicus et synonymicus. Vol. 7. Formicidae (Heterogyna). Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 289 pp. (page 104, combination in Aphaenogaster)
- Donisthorpe, H. 1932c. On the identity of Smith's types of Formicidae (Hymenoptera) collected by Alfred Russell Wallace in the Malay Archipelago, with descriptions of two new species. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 10(10): 441-476 (page 450, combination in Vollenhovia)
- Smith, F. 1857a. Catalogue of the hymenopterous insects collected at Sarawak, Borneo; Mount Ophir, Malacca; and at Singapore, by A. R. Wallace. [part]. J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. Zool. 2: 42-88 (page 77, queen described)
- 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).
References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics
- Chapman, J. W., and Capco, S. R. 1951. Check list of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Asia. Monogr. Inst. Sci. Technol. Manila 1: 1-327
- Pfeiffer M.; Mezger, D.; Hosoishi, S.; Bakhtiar, E. Y.; Kohout, R. J. 2011. The Formicidae of Borneo (Insecta: Hymenoptera): a preliminary species list. Asian Myrmecology 4:9-58
- Smith, F. "Catalogue of the hymenopterous insects collected at Sarawak, Borneo; Mount Ophir, Malacca; and at Singapore, by A. R. Wallace." Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology 2 (1857): 42-88.
- Wheeler W. M. 1919. The ants of Borneo. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 63:43-147.