Meranoplus hirsutus

Workers are not uncommonly encountered foraging diurnally on vegetation, at least to several metres above ground. Nests in soil or rotting wood on the ground or under stones. Most northern labels specify rainforest, rainforest edges, gallery rainforest or "scrub". In the south, specimens from the Glasshouse Mountains are labeled "dry sclerophyll"; those from Mt. Coottha "med sclerophyll", and from Mt. Nullum "dry sclero, under rock in creek bed". The most southern series (Blue Knob Mt.) is labeled "RF" (= rain-forest). (Taylor 2006)

Identification
Taylor (2006) - Translucent fenestrae at middle and posterolateral sections of promesonotal shield; shield not strongly arched in frontal view. Colour as illustrated – generally medium reddish-brown, gaster brightly orange-brown. A distinctively coloured, spinose and hirsute species, relatively heavily sculptured. No other known Meranoplus species with similar general colouration or with HWE less than 1.10 mm is as sharply or brightly bicoloured, none have such well-developed promesonotal spination, and few are anything like as densely pilose. No species with equivalent known distribution is at all similar. Meranoplus hirsutus is thus readily recognisable. There is no apparently significant discernable geographical variation.

Distribution
Taylor (2006) - Known from sections of the Great Dividing Range and its eastern flanks south from c.15° 45' S in NE Queensland to ca 28° 30' S in NE New South Wales. Typically in rainforest. Elevational range from near sea level to 950 m (Mt. Windsor Tableland) or "800 - 1000 m" (Black Mountain, ESE of Julatten).

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Australasian Region: Australia.

Nomenclature

 * . Meranoplus hirsutus Mayr, 1876: 112 (w.) AUSTRALIA (Queensland).
 * Type-material: lectotype worker (by designation of Taylor, 1990c: 38), 7 paralectotype workers.
 * Type-locality: lectotype Australia: Queensland, Gayndah; paralectotypes with same data.
 * Type-depository: NHMW.
 * Status as species: Dalla Torre, 1893: 136; Forel, 1915b: 46; Emery, 1924d: 229; Clark, 1928c: 42; Taylor & Brown, 1985: 67; Taylor, 1987a: 39; Taylor, 1990c: 38 (in text); Bolton, 1995b: 251; Taylor, 2006: 21 (redescription).
 * Distribution: Australia.

Worker
Taylor (2006) - The smallest and largest specimens (determined by surveying HWE) in a series of 32 workers from 30 km S of Sarina Qld. (ANIC) have the following dimensions: HW 0.83, 1.03; HWE 0.99, 1.23; HL 0.84, 0.98; CI 99, 105; EL 0.17, 0.22; OI 21, 21; PSW 1.24, 1.42; PSL 0.93, 1.12; PSI 125, 126; GW 1.12, 1.52.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Taylor R. W. 1987. A checklist of the ants of Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) Division of Entomology Report 41: 1-92.
 * Taylor R. W. 2006. Ants of the genus Meranoplus F. Smith, 1853 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): three new species and others from northeastern Australian rainforests. Myrmecologische Nachrichten 8: 21-29.
 * Wilson E. O. 1959. Patchy distributions of ant species in New Guinea rain forests. Psyche (Cambridge) 65: 26-38.