Dolichoderus parvus

Dolichoderus parvus occurs in drier regions with mallee, heath and dry sclerophyll habitats, primarily along southern coastal regions. It forages at night on low vegetation and nests under rocks. There is also a single collection from the Sydney area, approximately 800kms east of the next nearest record. These specimens match other D. parvus material and there is little doubt they belong to this species. However, the occurrence of this species in eastern New South Wales is in need of confirmation.

Identification
Colour of head yellowish-red; sculpturing on head minimal, either essentially absent or consisting of very fine reticulations; pronotum and propodeum lacking spines; posterior face of propodeum weakly concave, separated from the dorsal face by at most a weakly defined angle; propodeum falling away posteriorly so that the angle is below the level of the metanotal groove.

Although very similar to Dolichoderus kathae and Dolichoderus rutilus, the shape of the dorsal propodeal surface will distinguish this species from others in the australis group.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Australasian Region: Australia.

Nomenclature

 *  parvus. Dolichoderus (Hypoclinea) parvus Clark, 1930b: 263, fig. 16 (w.) AUSTRALIA. Senior synonym of parvus: Shattuck & Marsden, 2013: 129.
 * glauerti. Dolichoderus (Hypoclinea) glauerti Wheeler, W.M. 1934d: 147 (w.m.) AUSTRALIA. Junior synonym of parvus: Shattuck & Marsden, 2013: 129.

Description
Sculpturing on the katepisternum (pleuron of the mesothorax) and propodeum varying from smooth to longitudinally striate. In other respects all available material is similar.

Measurements (n=5). CI 79–84; EI 33–37; EL 0.28–0.30; HL 0.93–1.12; HW 0.76–0.88; ML 1.23–1.57; MTL 0.66–0.86; PronI 64.40–71.18; PronW 0.49–0.62; SI 116–125; SL 0.91–1.07.

Dolichoderus parvus was described from Sea Lake, Victoria while D. glauerti was established based on specimens from Rottnest Island, Western Australia, located approx. 2500km to the west. However, based on currently available material there is little separating these forms. Material from the west does show, on average, slightly more extensive sculpturing on the katepisternum (pleuron of the mesothorax) and propodeum and a larger body size while eastern specimens tend to be smoother and slightly smaller. However, the differences are slight, all forms can be found in all areas and numerous intermediate forms exist, making separation based on these characters highly problematic. Additionally, no other characters could be found suggesting that more than a single variable species is involved. Because of this D. glauerti was treated as a synonym of D. parvus by Shattuck & Marsden (2013).

Dolichoderus parvus occurs in drier regions with mallee, heath and dry sclerophyll habitats, primarily along southern coastal regions. It forages at night on low vegetation and nests under rocks. There is also a single collection from the Sydney area, approximately 800kms east of the next nearest record. These specimens match other D. parvus material and there is little doubt they belong to this species. However, the occurrence of this species in eastern New South Wales is in need of confirmation.

Additional References

 * Shattuck, S.O. & Marsden, S. 2013. Australian species of the ant genus Dolichoderus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Zootaxa 3716, 101–143 (doi 10.11646/zootaxa.3716.2.1).