Eurhopalothrix australis

The types are part of a nest series collected from rainforest. This species is unusual for the genus in that it is been collected many times.

Identification
Key to Australian Eurhopalothrix Species

Distribution
Occurs in habitats that vary from open to heavily forested in areas along and near the coast of eastern Queensland and northern New South Wales.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Australasian Region: Australia.

Nomenclature

 *  australis. Eurhopalothrix australis Brown & Kempf, 1960: 218, figs. 46, 51 (w.q.) AUSTRALIA. Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1973c: 207 (l.).

Worker
Holotype: TL 2.2. HL .056. HW 0.60 (Cl 107), scape L 0.33, greatest diameter o f eye ca. 0.04, WL 0.59 mm.

Form of head shown in Figure. General habitus as in Eurhopalothrix brevicornis and relatives; size larger than brevicornis, smaller than Eurhopalothrix caledonica. Clypeus anteriorly plane and sloping forward, with a shallowly impressed median part; posterior median lobe gently convex, without a transverse ridge. Mandibles each with 11 acute teeth (including apical tooth); basal tooth (tooth No. 1) broader at base than the rest; Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7 shorter than 2, 4, 6, 8, 11; Nos. 9 and 10 denticuliform, indistinct.

Promesonotum long, with flat dorsal surface (disc feebly impressed in some specimens); metanotal groove distinct, impressed; propodeal dorsum predominantly concave in outline, sloping caudad and continued as the broad lamelliform propodeal teeth. Petiole with peduncle and node subequal in length; node subangular in front above, its dorsal face convex, sloping behind, higher than long and, as seen from above, broader than long, with concave anterior border and weakly convex sides. Postpetiole about twice as wide as petiole and nearly 3/4 as wide as widest part of gaster (as wide as anterior border of gaster).

Pilosity of head of the "complete" type for the brevicornis group, but with the "bald spot" as in Eurhopalothrix clypeata, Eurhopalothrix alopeciosa and some Eurhopalothrix gravis, in which the small ground hairs are sparser and the whitish matter (a secretion?) often found on other surfaces of the head is absent. Subappressed spatulate hairs of the ground pilosity evenly distributed over legs, scapes, postpetiole and gaster, sparser on petiole and promesonotum, very fine and small on mandibles. No larger specialized hairs on alitrunk, one pair on petiolar node, and one pair on postpetiole (one hair on each posterolateral corner ); 14-18 hairs on first gastric tergite, a double row down the middle of the disc, another row flanking these on each side, often incomplete anteriad. The first and the two succeeding tergites each bear a total of 6 hairs in a transverse row near the free margin caudad. The specialized hairs are short but robust and obliquely erect, thicker and more numerous on the gastric dorsum than in brevicornis, and shorter, broader and less numerous than in caledonica.

Body densely and finely granulose-punctate, as in other members of the brevicornis group. Color medium ferruginous, legs and antennae more yellowish.

Paratype workers : TL 2.0-2.4, HL 0.54-0.57, HW 0.58-0.62 (CI 106-109), WL 0.57-0.60 mm. In some specimens the lateral occipital lobes are slightly more angulate at their point of greatest extension, and the sloping lateral borders of the lobes are correspondingly feebly concave. Several specimens, evidently rubbed, lack parts of the pilosity, especially the larger hairs. Otherwise, the paratypes are very similar to the holotype.

Queen
Alate, Paratype: TL 2.8, H L 0.62, H W 0.66 (CI 106), WL 0.75, forewing WL ca. 2.6 mm. With the usual caste differences. Mesonotum with 10 short spatulate erect hairs, mostly near the margins. Petiolar node much compressed anteroposteriorly, narrowly angulate above in front. Venation of forewing basically as in Eurhopalothrix procera,. but with pterostigma more distinct and with veins M + CuA and the apical sections of Rs, M and Cu deleted. Taken with the holotype; deposited in MCZ.

Type Material
Holotype a worker from a nest series taken near Crawford's Lookout by the Beatrice River, on the Millaa-Millaa-Innisfail Highway descending from the Atherton Tableland, northern Queensland, in rain forest, February, 1958 (P. F. Darlington leg.). Paratypes are: 8 workers taken with the holotype and the paratype female (MCZ, WWK, and an Australian Collection as yet unselected); a single worker, one of several collected, from Mt. Coot-tha, near Brisbane, Queensland, in soil, December 20, 1956, by B.B. Lowery (Coll. Lowery).