Lophomyrmex birmanus

Lophomyrmex birmanus nests in the soil, usually under stones and logs or around the bases of trees. Workers are active ground-foragers. We have collected workers by underground bait-trapping, suggesting they workers forage both on and under the ground. (Eguchi, Bui and Yamane 2011)

Identification
A member of the Lophomyrmex quadrispinosus group.

Eguchi, Bui and Yamane (2011) - The worker of the single known Vietnamese species (there is now a second, Lophomyrmex indosinensis) has the following features. Worker monomorphic; head in full-face view oval with a relatively straight posterior margin; frontal carina and antennal scrobe absent; median portion of clypeus convex anteriad, with a protruding blunt tooth at the midpoint of its anterior margin; frontal lobes moderately separated by posteromedian portion of clypeus; antenna 11-segmented with distinct 3-segmented club; eye oval with a weak anteroventral point, located at about midlength of head in full-face view; masticatory margin of mandible with apical tooth and one preapical tooth, followed by an enlarged denticle, this then followed by a series of small denticles; basal margin of mandible finely serrated; promesonotum forming a single dome, flattened dorsally, with a pair of horizontal flat spines those are formed by the lateral and anterolateral edges of the dorsum and directed anteriad; promesonotal suture absent; metanotal groove well defined; propodeal spine long; propodeal lobe reduced to a weak carina; petiole with a distinct peduncle and a high node; gastral shoulder distinct.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Oriental Region: India, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam. Palaearctic Region: China.

Nomenclature

 *  birmanus. Lophomyrmex birmanus Emery, 1893e: 192 (diagnosis in key) (w.) MYANMAR. See also: Emery, 1895k: 466; Bingham, 1903: 196; Rigato, 1994a: 58.

Worker
Rigato (1994) - TL 2.6-3.2, HL 0.66-0.79, HW 0.59-0.74, CI 83-95, SL 0.57-0.64, SI 84-98, PW 0.39-0.50, AL 0.75-0.94, SpL 0.19-0.30 HTL 0.53-0.65, TI 85-93 (44 measured).

With the characters given in the key and the following: Mesonotum in profile with a very low prominence and without a posterior step. Metanotal groove wide and shallow in profile. Propodeal spines in profile quite long and thin, often feebly curved downward. Petiolar node robust and rather rounded in profile.

Clypeus mostly subopaque. Frontal triangle sublucid. Head with a very superficial reticulation, shining. Genae and frontal lobes with some longitudinal rugulae. Pronotum rather smooth, at most as reticulate as the dorsum of the head. Posterior half of the mesonotum, mesopleuron and propodeum, excluding the declivity, with a strong and dense reticulation, subopaque. Petiole and postpetiole feebly reticulate, above all on the nodes. Gaster shining; a very weak reticulation like that of the head is present mostly on the basal half of the first tergite.

Colour from brownish yellow to light brown; often head clearly darker as well as the first gastral tergite, and alitrunk with somewhat shaded areas and bright brownish.

Type Material
Rigato (1994) - Holotype worker, Burma [=Myanmar]: Carin-Cheba 500-1000 m, xii.1887 (L. Fea) [examined].

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

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 * Chapman, J. W., and Capco, S. R. 1951. Check list of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Asia. Monogr. Inst. Sci. Technol. Manila 1: 1-327
 * Eguchi K.; Bui T. V.; Yamane S. 2011. Generic synopsis of the Formicidae of Vietnam (Insecta: Hymenoptera), part I  Myrmicinae and Pseudomyrmecinae. Zootaxa 2878: 1-61.
 * Emery C. 1893. Formicides de l'Archipel Malais. Revue Suisse de Zoologie 1: 187-229.
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 * Jaitrong W.; Nabhitabhata, J. 2005. A list of known ant species of Thailand. The Thailand Natural History Museum Journal 1(1): 9-54.
 * Mathew R., and R. N. Tiwari. 2000. Insecta: Hymenoptera: Formicidae. Pp. 251-409 in: Director; Zoological Survey of India (ed.) 2000. Fauna of of Meghalaya. Part 7. [State Fauna Series 4.] Insecta 2000. Calcutta: Zoological Survey of India, 621 pp.
 * Rigato F. 1994. Revision of the myrmicine ant genus Lophomyrmex, with a review of its taxonomic position (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Systematic Entomology 19: 47-60.
 * Sakchoowong W., W. Jaitrong, and K. Ogata. 2008. Ant diversity in forest and traditional hill-tribe agricultural types in northern Thailand. Kasetsart J. (Nat. Sci.) 42: 617-626.
 * Sheela S., and S. N. Ghosh. 2009. A new species of Lophomyrmex Emery (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from India with a key to Indian species. Biosystematica 2(2): 17-20.
 * Tiwari R. N., B. G. Kundu, S. Roy Chowdhury, and S. N. Ghosh. 2003. Insecta: Hymenoptera: Formicidae. Fauna of Sikkim. Part 4. State Fauna Series. 9.Zool.Surv.India. i-iii, 1-512. Chapter pagination: 467-506.
 * Xu Z., Chen Z. and Hu G.. 1998. Five species of the ant genera Tetramorium, Kartidris and Lophomyrmex newly recorded in China (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Southwest Forestry College 18: 236-240
 * Yamane Sk., and S. Hosoishi. 2014. Second Vietnamese species of the myrmicine genus Lophomyrmex (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Halteres 5: 64-68.
 * Zryanin V. A. 2011. An eco-faunistic review of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). In: Structure and functions of soil communities of a monsoon tropical forest (Cat Tien National Park, southern Vietnam) / A.V. Tiunov (Editor). – M.: KMK Scientific Press. 2011. 277 р.101-124.