Brachyponera obscurans

A nest of B. obscurans from a secondary forest in Macau contained about 400 individuals. The nest was covered by abundant rotten wood-litter and leaf-litter in an area with very moist soil. This ant nest was adjacent to a termite colony (Macrotermes barneyi) found nesting in wood laying on the ground surface. (Leong 2017)

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Indo-Australian Region: Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore. Malagasy Region: Mauritius. Oriental Region: India, Sri Lanka. Palaearctic Region: China.

Nomenclature

 * . Formica obscurans Walker, 1859: 372 (q.) SRI LANKA.
 * Combination in Ponera: Donisthorpe, 1932b: 575;
 * combination in Pachycondyla: Brown, in Bolton, 1995b: 308;
 * combination in Brachyponera: Schmidt, C.A. & Shattuck, 2014: 80.
 * Status as species: Mayr, 1863: 418; Smith, F. 1871a: 309; Dalla Torre, 1893: 202; Donisthorpe, 1932b: 575; Chapman & Capco, 1951: 200; Bolton, 1995b: 308; Pfeiffer, et al. 2011: 57; Guénard & Dunn, 2012: 61; Bharti, Guénard, et al. 2016: 49.

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
 * Dias R. K. S. 2002. Current knowledge on ants of Sri Lanka. ANeT Newsletter 4: 17- 21.
 * Guénard B., and R. R. Dunn. 2012. A checklist of the ants of China. Zootaxa 3558: 1-77.
 * Imai H. T., C. Baroni Urbani, M. Kubota, G. P. Sharma, M. H. Narasimhanna, B. C. Das, A. K. Sharma, A. Sharma, G. B. Deodikar, V. G. Vaidya, and M. R. Rajasekarasetty. 1984. Karyological survey of Indian ants. Japanese Journal of Genetics 59: 1-32.
 * Leong C. M., S. F. Shiao, and B. Guenard. 2017. Ants in the city, a preliminary checklist of Formicidae (Hymenoptera) in Macau, one of the most heavily urbanized regions of the world. Asian Myrmecology 9: e009014.
 * Li Z.h. 2006. List of Chinese Insects. Volume 4. Sun Yat-sen University Press
 * 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
 * Sagata, K., A.L. Mack, D.D. Wright and P.J. Lester. 2010. The influence of nest avaiability on the abundance and diversity of twig-dwelling ants in a Papua New Guinea forest. Insectes Sociaux 57:333-341
 * Tawatao N., N. E. Harper, M. Mohamed, C. V. Khen, J. B. Searle, and J. K. Hill. 2011. Impacts of forest fragmentation on the genetic diversity and population structure of Pachycondyla obscurans in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Asian Myrmecology 4:59-68.