Polyrhachis foreli

Polyrhachis foreli is a rainforest species commonly nesting in rotting logs, tree stumps and epiphytes or in the ground (Kohout 1989, 1998; Robson & Kohout 2005, 2007; Kohout 2012).

Distribution
This taxon was described from Australia.

The distribution of P. foreli consists of two, substantially disjunct populations, Papuan and Australian. Apart from the specimens of the original series of ‘relucens decipiens papuana’ from the D’Entrecasteaux Islands, there is a relatively small number of additional specimens from the Papuan population, where the species appears fairly rare. On the other hand, in Australia (‘relucens andromache andromeda’) the species appears relatively common and ranges from Iron Range on Cape York Peninsula, throughout Queensland’s Wet Tropics to about Mission Beach and Hinchinbrook Island in the south (based on Kohout, 2012).

Nomenclature

 *  foreli. Polyrhachis foreli Kohout, 1989: 510, figs. 2, 7, 11 (w.q.) AUSTRALIA. Material of the unavailbale names andromeda, papuana referred here by Kohout, 1998: 521.

Holotype worker from near Clump Point, NE Tully, Queensland, 17°52’S, 146°07’E, 30.iv.1969 (R.W. Taylor acc. 69.123) (examined by Kohout, 2012).

Additional References

 * Kohout, R.J. 2012. A review of the Australian Polyrhachis ants of the subgenera Myrma Billberg, Myrmatopa Forel, Myrmothrinax Forel and Polyrhachis Fr. Smith (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Formicinae). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Nature 56(1): 25-59.