Hair Shape

Lattke et al. (2018) - For describing hair shapes, the terms defined by Bolton (2000) are used as well as some botanical terms used for describing leaf shapes (Harris & Harris, 2001). Despite their origins in botanical morphology they are readily applicable to ant hairs. The following terms describe hair shapes:


 * clavate – club-shaped, with a cylindrical basal section and a swollen, but not flattened distal section. Similar in outline to a spatulate hair, but the latter is flattened.
 * lanceolate – lance-shaped, with the widest part basad (Fig. 1G).
 * linear – long and narrow, much more so than oblong, with parallel to subparallel sides (Fig. 1B).
 * oblong – flattened, two to four times longer than broad with parallel or subparallel sides (Fig. 1C).
 * ovate – egg-shaped, flattened, with the widest part basad (Fig. 1E).
 * reniform – kidney-shaped, flattened and widest close to midlength, the base is between two shallow convex lobes and the lateral and apical margins describe a broad convexity (Fig. 1F).
 * spatulate – elongate and flattened, gradually tapering basad with the widest part close to the apex (Fig. 1D).
 * subspatulate – similar to spatulate but with a lesser degree of tapering, not exactly oblong but not spatulate (Fig. 1A). Many of the descriptions and diagnoses describe outlines of particular body part margins; these (in particular the shape of certain teeth and hairs) are best seen by using reflected background lighting