Temnothorax schaumii

Mackay (2000) "This species nests in bark of living trees, in branches, logs and oak galls of trees (Wheeler, 1905, 1916; Cole, 1940; Gregg, 1944; Carter, 1962; Moody and Francke, 1982; DuBois, 1985; Wheeler and Longino, 1988) in many habitats ranging from desert canyons in trees (Van Pelt, 1983), to grasslands, to shaded deciduous forests (Carter, 1962; DuBOis, 1985). It is found occasionally at lower elevations in the southern Blue Ridge of Virginia (Van Pelt, 1963). It is the most common Leptothoraxin Mississippi (Smith, 1924). All large oak trees in south central Ohio have nests (Wesson and Wesson, 1940). One nest contained 143 workers, 35 larvae and a single queen (Wheeler, 1903a), although nests may have more than a single queen (Frumhoff and Ward, 1992). The nest entrance is simply a small hole (Wheeler, 1903a)."

Identification
Mackay (2000) "These ants have 11-segmented antennae and are usually concolorous dark brown, but are occasionally concolorous yellow. The head is nearly completely covered with fine striae, which merge with the dense punctures. Occasionally there is a central strip, which is partly free of sculpture and somewhat shining. The top of the mesosoma is mostly punctate, with a few striae, the side of the mesosoma has numerous striae with punctures between them. The propodeal spines range from tiny angles to small spines, which are dull and rounded. The petiole and postpetiole are punctate and the node of the petiole is weakly truncate, with round edges.

The 11 segmented antenna and tiny propodeal spines separate this species from all other species with 11 segmented antennae in the subgenus, except L. whitjordi. It can be easily distinguished from L. whiifordi as the head and pronotum are predominantly punctate (predominantly smooth and shining in L. whitjordi, but the pronotum may be punctate as in L. schaumii). The punctures on the pronotum of L. schaumii are fine and completely cover the surfaces, whereas in L. whiifordi they are coarse and do not densely cover the surface. The small spines separate it from the others in the schaumii species complex."

Range
USA. Kansas, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Illinois, Kentucky,Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington D. C., West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia.

Abundance
xxxxx Only known from a few collections. xxxxx

Biology
xxxxx At present we known nothing beyond the type information for Temnothorax xxxxxxxx. This ant was once a member of the now synonymized subgenus Myrafant and we can speculate that the biology of this species will be found to be like many other similar forms from North America:

xxxxx

Original Combination
Leptothorax schaumii Roger, 1863a:180

Unless otherwise noted the taxonomic information that follows is from the same publication as the original combination.

Type Material
As reported in Mackay (2000) "The types could not be located in Roger's collection (Museum fur Naturkunde Zentralinstitutder Humboldt-Universitiitzu Berlin), and probably no longer exist. "