Polyrhachis crawleyi

Polyrhachis crawleyi is uncommon with a rather patchy distribution across northern Australia. It is apparently restricted to open eucalypt forests and savannah woodlands, preferring patches of bare ground without a covering of grass to excavate their ground-based nests.

Identification
Kohout (1988): Similar to Polyrhachis ammonoeides. P. crawleyi is smaller (HL < 1.80), has longer antennal scapes (SI > 155) and the body is covered by very fine, somewhat dilute silvery pubescence. P. ammonoeides is always larger (HL > 1.90), with much shorter antennal scapes (SI < 148), a generally more glossy appearance, and with pubescence virtually absent from all body surfaces except the gaster. The widely divergent propodeal spines are almost straight in P. crawleyi, while in P. ammonoeides their tips are distinctly turned outwards.

Kohout (2013): Polyrhachis crawleyi is rather similar to Polyrhachis cracenta, but is separable by its consistently smaller size and closely reticulate-punctate sculpturation of the body, with distinguishing characters provided in the remarks of the latter species.

Distribution
Found in North Queensland and the Northern Territory. It is known from Lakefield on Cape York Peninsula south to Rockhampton, areas to the south of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and the Darwin district (Kohout 1988).

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Australasian Region: Australia.

Nomenclature

 *  crawleyi. Polyrhachis (Hagiomyrma) ammonoeides var. crawleyi Forel, 1916: 447 (w.) AUSTRALIA. Raised to species: Kohout, 1988c: 433.

Additional References

 * Kohout, R.J. 2013. Revision of Polyrhachis (Hagiomyrma) Wheeler, 1911 (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Formicinae). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, Nature 56, 487-577.